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Jose Murilo Junior

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September 7th, 2008

Brazil: Inventive censorship, and the case for anonymity 

Jose Murilo Junior · 10:43 · Americas

Brazil got used to being recognized for it's Internet savvy and large population of early web-adopters. Nevertheless, or maybe exactly because of that, the country is rapidly becoming a haven for novel and inventive models and tactics of Internet censorship.

A quick search on ‘brazil' + ‘censorship' in Global Voices returns a bunch of scary titles posted just in the last 6 months: Dismissal of Brazilian Blogger: Censorship or Just Business? (March 23rd), Bloggers united against Wordpress ban (April 12th), First blog falls victim to electoral law (June 1st), Blogging Against Web-Censorship (June 19th), Bloggers question the 13 new cyber-crimes (July 17th), Electoral censorship at work (July 22nd).

This time, the weird news sprouts from the state of Minas Gerais, where governor Aécio Neves is carefully preparing himself to run as presidential candidate in 2010, when Lula leaves office. In the midst of country-wide municipal elections, the opposing online journal ‘Novo Jornal' was taken down by state level prosecutors — the Public Ministry — on (refuted) charges of anonymity.

Truth is that the Brazilian Constitution sets up an unusually twisted situation, especially for online speech: free expression of thought is assured in the same paragraph where anonymity is formally forbidden. Still, the seizure of ‘Novo Jornal' is calling the attention of the blogosphere for the inventive strategy of using state level prosecutors and cybercrime allegations to immediately take down an informative website without the proper legal process. Blogs are also pointing out the fact that the mainstream media has been silent about the case — in what has started to appear as a pattern when it comes to negative coverage on Aécio Neves.

The matrix-like display forced upon ‘NovoJornal's web page sets the tone.

This page is suspended by a legal precautionary measure and the site content is being analysed for criminal evidences
This page is suspended by a legal precautionary measure and
the site content is being analysed for criminal evidences

State Prosecutors on the Combat of Cybercrimes

A justificativa do MPE, retirada do site do jornal O Tempo: “Instaurado o Procedimento Investigatório Criminal, constatou-se que não há identificação do responsável pelo site - que se intitula jornal, fato que fere frontalmente a Constituição Federal que prevê que é livre a manifestação do pensamento, sendo vedado o anonimato, além da Lei de Imprensa, que se aplica à Internet”… Independente de lados políticos, postura jornalística, anonimato ou não, o que percebo é que os braços da censura estão à solta, e a História mostra que eles costumam ser usados por aqueles que estão no poder, poucas vezes com boas razões. Mais do que apoiar ou condenar, é preciso ficar de olho, fiscalizar. Pensando bem, não era essa a função do Ministério Público - e, em outra esfera, da imprensa?
E tem gente que pensa que calice é coisa do passado - NaRua.org

The State Prosecutor's consideration is stated on O Tempo's website: “Once the criminal investigation procedure started, it was found that there is no identification of who is in charge of the site — which labels itself as a Journal — incurring in a frontal violation of the Federal Constitution, which guarantees the free expression of thought but forbids anonymity, and also the Press Law, which applies to the Internet”… Apart from [issues of] political partisanship, journalistic viewpoint or anonymity, the one thing I perceive is that the arms of censorship are reaching out, and history tells us that they are usually utilized by the ones in power, and rarely for good reasons. More than debating the merits of the case, it is important to stay alert and be on guard. Thinking about it… wouldn't that be the role of the State Prosecutors, and from the other side, of the media?
There are people who think censorship is something from the past - NaRua.org

No momento em que foi retirado do ar, o Novo Jornal trazia em sua primeira página uma matéria com pesadas críticas ao Presidente do STF, Gilmar Mendes. A matéria ainda pode ser lida no cache do Google. O Novo Jornal também denunciou que o governador Aécio Neves pagou US$ 269 milhões de dívidas da Rede Globo de Televisão na compra da Light.
Retirado do ar site jornalístico que continha denúncias contra Aécio Neves - O Biscoito Fino e a Massa

At the moment it was taken down, the ‘Novo Jornal' website was displaying on it's home page an article heavily criticizing the Federal Supreme Court president, Gilmar Mendes. The article can still be read in Google's cache. “Novo Jornal” also decried that Aécio Neves payed US$ 269 million of Globo TV Network's debts on the purchase of Light [Electric Company].
Brought down news website denouncing Aécio Neves - O Biscoito Fino e a Massa

Ao contrário do argumentado pelo Ministério Público, o Novojornal encontra-se rigorosamente dentro da lei, inclusive com diretor-responsável registrado na DRT, detentor do MTE nº 000311/MG, respondendo o mesmo por todas as matérias não-assinadas publicadas no Novojornal… Dessa forma, comprovado está que jamais existiu o anonimato argüido pelo MP-MG. Inclusive o diretor-responsável e o endereço de sua sede encontram-se registrados no Registro.br, cadastro oficial de todos os sítios da internet no Brasil.
Continua censurado por Aécio Neves o site ‘Novo Jornal' - Em cima da notícia

Contrary to the State Prosecutor's arguments, “Novo Jornal” was strictly under the law, with it's Director in Charge registered at the Regional Labor Office, holding the MTE nº 000311/MG, what puts him in charge of all the non-signed articles published at “Novo Jornal”… That's how it is proved that there never was no anonymity as stated by the State Prosecutors. NovoJornal's Director in Charge and it's address are also listed at Registro.br, the official registry for all Internet sites in Brazil.
NovoJornal remains censored by Aecio Neves - Em cima da notícia

Será que não existem coisas mais importantes para o Ministério Público mineiro investigar do que ficar censurando a Internet, a mando do governador, com a desculpa de se tratar de Crime Cibernético?
Em terra de presidenciável, censura-se a oposição como crime cibernético - Rastreadores de Impurezas

Aren't there more important issues for the Public Ministry of Minas to investigate than to censor the Internet, following governor's orders, disguised as an action against Cybercrime?
In the land of a presidential candidate, you censor the opposition as cybercrime - Rastreadores de Impurezas


As bloggers were quick to notice
, there are some other things being done in Brazil (see also: “Bloggers question the 13 new cyber-crimes“, “The cost of the cybercrime bill“, “Cybercrime bill is now translated“) disguised as actions against Cybercrime.

Na revista digital NovaE, um longo texto do blogueiro José de Souza Castro, o primeiro a descobrir que o site do Novo Jornal foi tirado do ar por ação da justiça, começa a detalhar o que ocorreu e faz o link entre esse processo e o cerco que começa a se estruturar no Brasil contra a liberdades na rede mundial de computadores:

“O governo de Minas parece que tinha muita pressa para resolver essa questão com o Novo Jornal. Segundo O Tempo, “a Promotoria Estadual de Combate aos Crimes Cibernéticos foi criada em Belo Horizonte em 16 de julho deste ano. Com o crescente número de crimes praticados por usuários da rede, o MPE decidiu pela sua implantação. A promotoria atua como um órgão de suporte aos promotores de Justiça que atuam na área criminal e agiliza o atendimento às vítimas”. E acrescenta, citando uma pessoa identificada como Vanessa Fusco: A estratégia é agir proativamente no enfrentamento desse tipo de crime, que vem crescendo principalmente com a chegada da banda larga às cidades do interior”. E conclui: “Um projeto de autoria do senador Eduardo Azeredo (PSDB) prevê a tipificação da conduta dos crimes praticados na Internet”. (texto da Novae)”

A censura à Internet em Minas Gerais - Em busca da palavra justa

In NovaE digital magazine there is a long article from blogger José de Souza Castro, the first to find out that “NovoJornal” was brought down by a legal action, where he starts to delve deeper in the details, which leads him to link this particular process to the siege that is being engineered in Brazil against Internet liberties [the Cybercrime Bill]:

“The government of Minas Gerais seemed to be in a haste to settle this issue with ‘Novo Jornal'. According to ‘O Tempo', “the Cybercrime Combat State Prosecutors was created in Belo horizonte on July 16th this year. In face of the rampant number of crimes practiced by network users, the State Public Ministry has decided for its deployment. The Cybercrime Prosecutor acts as a support to justice prosecutors working on the criminal sector, and streamlines attendance to victims.” The newspaper adds, quoting someone identified as Vanessa Fusco: “The strategy is to act pro-actively in confronting this type of crime, which keeps growing mainly with the arrival of broadband to the interior”. And concludes: “A project authored by Senator Eduardo Azeredo (PSDB) seeks (or sought) to define and list the criminal acts performed on the Internet” (Novae's text)”

Internet censorship in Minas Gerais - Em busca da palavra justa


The ‘NovoJornal's case is also
showing that, despite what the constitution provides on the matter of free speech, ‘anonymity' may play an important role as a ‘checks and balance' element in a democratic public space. The video below shows NovoJornal's Director in Charge, Marco Aurélio Carone, answering why the articles on the site have no attribution and are not signed. The interview was published on YouTube some weeks before ‘NovoJornal' was censored.


If you've managed to follow along
this far, you will surely want to watch the video below, made by the Brazilian Daniel Florêncio for Current.TV, and presented as “an investigation into the seemingly increasingly curtailed press in Brazil”. But first, a blogger account to add context:

A reportagem de Florêncio ‘nasceu’ do documentário “Liberdade, essa palavra“, produzido em 2006 pelo então estudante de jornalismo Marcelo Baêta… Tanto o documentário de Baêta quanto a reportagem do Daniel repercutiram na imprensa nacional e internacional (a Folha e o Le Monde publicaram matérias sobre o caso), e geraram respostas incisivas dos partidários de Aécio, que usaram a mesma ferramenta, o YouTube, para a defesa… Depois de ver todos os vídeos relacionados ao caso (veja mais aqui), ficou a pulga atrás da orelha: teriam os jornalistas realmente tirado os seus da reta no caso?
Minas Gerais, a censura e o estado de coisas - NaRua.org

Florêncio's report was ‘born' from the documentary “Liberdade, essa palavra“ (Freedom, this word), produced in 2006 by then journalism student Marcelo Baêta… Both Baêta's documentary and Daniel's report had repercussions in the national and international media (Folha de Sao Paulo and Le Monde published articles on the case), that generated sharp responses from Aécio's partisans, who used the same tool, the YouTube, for defense… After seeing all the case's related videos (see more here), I was puzzled by something: did the journalists really ‘take their asses off the line' in the case?
Minas Gerais, the censorship and the state of affairs - NaRua.org

You may want also to watch the video response to the curren.tv's piece.

The viral spread of Internet participation across the Brazilian population is producing quite a shaking in the established realms of media, politics and courts. But it is exactly this kind of upheaval that generates the discourse necessary to the discovery of balanced protocols for managing the contradictions revealed by the age of information. Stay tuned — this is an ongoing process.

Há um backup do site [NovoJornal] em http://rapidshare.com/files/138763257/novojornal.tar.bz2.html
Comentário de Winston
em Retirado do ar site jornalístico que continha deúncias contra Aécio Neves - O Biscoito Fino e a Massa

0 comments · »»

August 15th, 2008

Central Asia & Caucasus

ClubOrlov presents an interesting approach — ‘colored by linguistics' — and insightful takes on the western claims over Georgia's ‘territorial integrity'.

June 28th, 2008

Americas

André Deak is a Brazilian blogger who has recently visited Cuba, and in ‘Cuban Hackers‘ [PT] he tells about the ‘Universidad de las Ciencias Informáticas‘ (Informatic Sciences University), where local developers are learning to create code in one of the most precarious technological environments, caused by the US embargo. Deak concludes that, like Cuban mechanics who learned to keep old cars riding, local developers might become very specialized hackers in the future.

June 17th, 2008

Brazil: The Black President Before Obama 

Jose Murilo Junior · 01:16 · Americas
lingua → pt · it · es

The sweeping Obama phenomenon has caught Brazil, and it comes as no surprise in the country with the world's largest population of African descendants. Blogs are commenting on all things Obama, from his stand on ethanol to the ‘rumors‘ of his appraisal of Brazil's free software policies. An especially notable thread is the one reporting on the resurgence of a weirdly interesting 1928 Brazilian sci-fi novel — ‘The Black President' — that predicted a US election matching a black, a feminist, and a conservative candidate in the then remote year of 2228.

The author, Monteiro Lobato, is very famous in Brazil for his tales for children and teens. The set of books ‘Yellow Woodpecker Ranch‘ was turned into popular TV series that reigned supreme on Brazilian tubes through 5 different remakes — the first in 1952, and most recently in 2001. But, in this case, the book is an obscure and rare incursion of Lobato into adult science fiction. The resurgence of interest in it now is totally connected with what stands out as an incredible intuitive guesswork on what has come to be our present situation, but 80 years ago (!) almost unimaginable.

Para a maior parte do público leitor brasileiro, Monteiro Lobato (1882-1948) é lembrado pelos episódios da série O Sítio do Pica Pau Amarelo. Muitos, porém, desconhecem a “obra para adultos” que Monteiro Lobato escreveu… Originalmente publicado em 1926, como folhetim, no jornal A Manhã, (onde recebeu o título de “O Choque das Raças”, hoje seu subtítulo), “O Presidente Negro” é uma obra duplamente curiosa: primeiramente por se tratar de uma ficção científica, gênero pouco cultivado entre os escritores brasileiros; e em segundo lugar porque em sua trama retrata o debate científico e intelectual vigente nas primeiras décadas do século XX.
O Presidente Negro de Monteiro Lobato - ALPHARRÁBIO - por Viegas Fernandes da Costa

Most of the Brazilian readers of Monteiro Lobato (1882-1948) know him for the episodes of the ‘Yellow Woodpecker Ranch' series, and few are acquainted with his ‘adult piece'… Originally published in 1926 as a ‘feuilleton‘ in the newspaper ‘A Manhã', (but then titled as “The Clash of Races”, which today stands as the subtitle), “The Black President” is a doubly curious book: first for being a science fiction piece, an uncommon genre among Brazilian writers, and second because the plot anticipates the current scientific and intellectual debate during the first decades of the 20th century.
Monteiro Lobato's Black President - ALPHARRÁBIO - por Viegas Fernandes da Costa

The huge coincidence with the US elections was enough to turn “The Black President” into ‘cult' reading, although some other of Lobato's predictions, such as his description of the Internet, have also attracted the attention of commenters. The contorted political psychology of the triangle that binds the white male, the feminist, and the black candidate is also apparent.

O Presidente Negro é um livro assustador. Assustador em vários sentidos. Primeiro pelo caráter premonitório da obra. Em 1926, Lobato prevê a invenção de um tipo de radiotransmissão de dados que possibilitaria o ser humano a cumprir suas tarefas da própria casa e sem a necessidade de se deslocar para o trabalho. Fala também do desaparecimento do jornal impresso porque as notícias serão “radiadas” diretamente para a casa dos indivíduos e aparecerão em caracteres luminosos numa tela - exatamente como acontece com quem está lendo esse texto. Em uma palavra atual: internet. Mas as premonições não param por aí. Às vésperas de viajar para os Estados Unidos como adido comercial da embaixada brasileira, Monteiro Lobato preconiza a eleição de um presidente negro nos EUA. O momento político (no ano de 2228) que possibilitaria isso viria da divisão da raça branca, entre um candidato do Partido Masculino (Kerlog) e uma candidata do Partido Feminino (Evelyn Astor). A neofeminista Evelyn Astor está com a vitória praticamente garantida e eis que surge o líder negro Jim Roy, que acaba eleito presidente.
O Presidente Negro. Um livro assustador - Acerto de Contas

‘The Black President' is a scary book. Frightening in many ways. Firstly, by the prescient character of the piece. In 1926, Lobato forecasts the invention of a kind of data radio transmission that would make it possible for human beings to accomplish their tasks from their home, without having to relocate to work. He also anticipates the disappearance of the printing press, for the news will be “radiated” directly to the houses of the individuals and will appear in bright letters on a screen — exactly how it is happening with whoever is reading this very text. [It is] in one modern word — the Internet. But the premonitions don't stop there. By the time he was moving to the US as commercial attaché at the Brazilian embassy, Monteiro Lobato foresaw the election of a black president in the US. The specific political moment in the year of 2228 that bore such a situation would be due to the split that occurred in the white race, between a candidate from the Masculine Party (Kerlog) and a candidate from the Feminine Party (Evelyn Astor). The neo-feminist Evelyn Astor has the victory almost guaranteed, but then the black leader Jim Roy surges and ends up being elected President.
The Black President. A Scary Book - Acerto de Contas

As guerras igualmente foram extintas, tão logo os Ministérios da Guerra foram trocados pelos da Paz. Apesar disso, os EUA estão prestes a mergulhar no caos e no sangue às vésperas da eleição de seu 88º presidente, de tal forma o pleito cindiu a população. De um lado, estão agrupados os milhões de eleitores pretos, que apóiam Jim Roy, da Associação Negra. De outro, as mulheres brancas que seguem a candidata do Partido Feminino, miss Evelyn Astor. E, por fim, há os homens brancos, que preferem a reeleição de Kerlog pelo Partido Masculino, que fundiu o Democrata e o Republicano. Eis o essencial da trama: não apenas um choque de raças, mas também uma guerra de sexos. Os homens brancos, a fim de embranquecer os EUA, planejam enviar os negros para a Amazônia, que já não é parte do Brasil. Nosso país foi dividido em dois, independentes: o Norte, de atávica malemolência, e o Sul bem-sucedido, a “grande República do Paraná”, que engloba ainda a Argentina, o Uruguai e o Paraguai.
Monteiro Lobato… Um Profeta? - Resistência Democrática

The wars were also finished, as soon as the War Ministries were replaced by the Peace Ministries. Despite that, the US is on the verge of descending into chaos and bloodbath on the eve of the election of its 88th president, such was the disruption caused by the contest. On one side, the millions of black voters are gathered to support Jim Roy, from the Black Association. On the other side, the white women who follow the Feminine Party candidate, long for Evelyn Astor. And finally, there are the white men, who prefer the reelection of Kerlog, from the Masculine Party, which surged from the merge of the Democrat and Republican parties. Here is the essential part of the plot: it is not only a clash of races, but also a war between the sexes. The white men, in order to get a ‘whiter' America, plan to send the blacks to the Amazon, which is not part of Brazil anymore [!]. Our country was divided in two independent nations: the north, of atavistic malemolencia, and the prosperous South, the “big Republic of Paraná”, which also includes Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay.
Monteiro Lobato… A Prophet? - Resistência Democrática

Even in some of his far-out references, Lobato seems to keep throwing light on images that, if not real, are quite recurrent to say the least. But, on a closer inspection, his plot reveals clearly that, although getting it right on the surface, his interpretation of the signals were often projections of weird concepts. In fact, what previously called attention to this book — prior to the current historical coincidence with the US elections — was the evidence of Lobato's sympathy with Eugenics, a racist social philosophy that acquired some followers in Brazil during the 20s and 30s, and advocates the improvement of human hereditary traits through various forms of intervention, mainly segregating races.

Miss Jane, filha de Benson, é quem verbaliza as idéias de Lobato: “Que é América senão a feliz zona que desde o início atraiu os elementos mais eugênicos das melhores raças européias? Onde há força vital da raça branca senão lá?”. Defendendo a segregação americana, acrescenta sobre a miscigenação brasileira: “Nossa solução foi medíocre. Estragou as duas raças, fundindo-as. O negro perdeu as suas admiráveis qualidades físicas de selvagem e o branco sofreu a inevitável piora de caráter, conseqüente a todos os cruzamentos entre raças díspares”.
Racismo à Brasileira - Bravo Online

Miss Jane, Benson's daughter, is the one who gives voice to Lobato's ideas: “What is America if not the happy zone which right from the start has attracted the many elements from eugenics of the best European races? Where is the vital force of the white race located if not there?” While defending American segregation, he also has something to say about the Brazilian miscigenetion: “Our solution was shabby. We ruined both races, by merging them. The blacks have lost their admirable wild physical qualities, and the whites have suffered the inevitable worsening of character as a consequence of the crossings among different races”.
Racismo à Brasileira - Bravo Online

Indeed, Obama is definitely not the black candidate of Lobato's tale, but rather the result of a political, cultural and genetic mix with whites. There is a core difference between the societal position of African descendants in Brazil (more mixed) and in the US (more separated), but Obama's surge is perceived by some Brazilians as the result of the 70s US affirmative action policies in which these social programs appear now as the game changer.

From a Brazilian perspective, the inevitable question that Afro-descendants are asking themselves now is what has made Obama's success possible in the US — with their 'segregation' and separatism — while an analogous situation in more mixed Brazil still looks like a distant dream, far from becoming a reality.

Contrariando expectativas que já duram mais de cem anos, no Brasil, “país com a maior população afro-descendente fora da África”, “negros e pardos vão superar o número de brancos neste ano” de 2008… As afirmações, acompanhadas da constatação de que o país “não tem um único político negro de projeção nacional”, vem a propósito da candidatura do senador Barack Obama à presidência dos Estados Unidos… Atrasados em pelo menos cinqüenta anos com relação às conquistas sociais do povo negro nos Estados Unidos, no Brasil, nós, herdeiros do mesmo brutal despojamento que plasmou a sociedade norte-americana (e do qual Obama, esclareça-se, não é vítima direta) vimos sendo, há mais de 120 anos forçados a acreditar que neste país “alegremente mestiço e desracializado”, nunca houve segregação nem ku-klux-klan, e que nossa inferioridade deve-se apenas a problemas econômicos e pode ser zerada com boas escolas e boas merendas para todos.
OBAMA, SUA ÉPOCA E O SONHO - AldeiaGriot

Against all the expectations that already have been here more than a hundred years, “blacks and mestizos will surpass the number of whites in this year of 2008″ in Brazil — “the country with the largest Afro-descendant population outside Africa”… These observations, followed by the finding that the country “does not have any black politician of national projection”, comes with reference to the campaign of Senator Barack Obama for the Presidency of United States… Lagging behind around fifty years in relation to the social conquests of the US black people, we heirs of the same plunder that permeated North American society (and from which Obama, we should make clear, is not a direct victim) are being forced to believe for more than 120 years that this country is “happily mixed and de-racialized”. There has never been segregation or any ku-klux-klan and [therefore] our inferiority is due only to economic problems and can be brought to nil with good schools and good school lunches for all.
OBAMA, HIS ERA AND THE DREAM - AldeiaGriot

In the developing debate over affirmative action and the different perspectives on quota schemes in Brazil it is quite natural to see Obama's sucess in terms of long-standing tensions, but the effects of his possible election may reverberate differently in the many different layers of culture. If he is elected, the deep psychology that underlies the appearence of such an archetypal persona in history will become a part of the social-political-cultural debate.

Some bloggers are aware of this Obama inherited complexity that is helping to transcend the obvious polarities.

Quando, anos mais tarde, condenou a Guerra do Iraque, ele argumentaria com base nas conclusões que tirou da vida. Seus pais tentaram se reinventar abandonando as tradições e, no processo, perderam a própria identidade. A tradição é o que dá liga à sociedade. Perante a mudança, a tradição sempre resiste. Mudança, na história, vem a passos lentos. Para ele, há ingenuidade no ideal do sonho americano de que idéias, por si, causam grandes mudanças. Idéias não bastam. Barack Obama, como o descreveu Larissa MacFarquhar num perfil para a revista The New Yorker, ‘é profundamente conservador’. Democracia não seria simplesmente imposta num país onde ela jamais existira.
Quem é e o que pensa Barack Obama? - Pedro Dória Weblog

When, years later, [Obama] condemned the Iraq War, his arguments where based on the conclusions he arrived at through his life. His parents tried to reinvent themselves by abandoning their traditions and, in the process, they lost their identities. Tradition is what binds a society together. Facing change, tradition will allways resist. Change, in history, comes in slow steps. For him, there is some naivety in the idealistic American dream that ideas, by themselves, will cause big changes. Ideas are not enough. Barack Obama, as described by Larissa MacFarquhar in a New Yorker Magazine profile, ‘is deeply conservative'. Democracy could never be simply imposed in a country where it never existed.
Who is Barack Obama, and what does he think? - Pedro Dória Weblog

From Lobato's black president prevailing in a context of separation to the complex profile of Barack Obama in a world of emergent possibilities appears now as the measure of political change.

7 comments · »»

May 31st, 2008

Brazil: Visible and Invisible Indians and Scoops This is a Photos postThis is a Video post

Jose Murilo Junior · 23:54 · Americas
lingua → fr · mk · pt

Brazilian Indians were in the spotlight of world media this week and the local blogosphere has much to say about it. From the images of an uncontacted tribe in the Amazon, which were ‘leaked’ first in a blog that is now claiming attribution rights for its scoop, to the enraged protest caught on camera against the building of dams along the Xingu River in the Amazon basin where an official of Brazil’s national electric company got slashed by traditional machetes and clubs. Bloggers had different takes from the dominant mainstream media narratives.

Here is the Brazilian GLOBO video of the engineer's encounter with the Indians.

Since the gathering in Altamira, the Brazilian media have focused mostly on the issue of violence. GLOBO included a special report in its extremely popular weekend TV magazine FANTASTICO and here's the text (computer) translated into rough English. As you can see, the focus is on the engineer and the Indians associated with the confrontation and there is very little about the many consequences of building the dam. While the Brazilian mainstream media are preoccupied with the “hot” story, various blogs and NGOs have been struggling to deliver the deeper messages. Encontro Xingu ‘08 provides great coverage of the whole event with in-depth analysis by David Cunningham and lots of wonderful photos by Sue Cunningham. The Xingu Encounter was also reported by International Rivers along with English translations of the declarations of the Xingu Peoples. And here's the (computer) translated final statement of the broad coalition of Brazilian grassroots organizations that are opposing building of th,e Belo Monte dam.
Violence - Vision Share

How interesting that that in the midst of this debate over the proper focus when presented with such strong images of a violent event, Altino Machado, a famous blogger from Acre state in the Amazon region, presented to the world the first images of what could be one of the last isolated tribal groups in the Brazilian Amazon rainforest — the so called, ‘Invisible Indians’.

\'Invisible Indians\' in the Amazon

If you've seen Wade Davis's unforgettable 2004 TED Talk — where he evokes the magic of the world's cultural diversity, and speaks so eloquently about the alarming rate with which cultures and languages are dying — then you might find this photo as heart-stopping as I did. It's so surreal, I thought at first it must be a hoax. But Reuters just picked the story up, and I'm going to assume they did my fact-checking for me. The photo shows members of one of the world’s last uncontacted tribes, who were spotted and photographed from the air in a remote corner of the Amazon rainforest near the Brazil-Peru border. Survival International, an advocacy group for tribal people, released the photos on their website and quotes Jose Carlos dos Reis Meirelles Junior, who works for the Brazilian government’s Indian affairs department: “We did the overflight to show their houses, to show they are there, to show they exist …This is very important because there are some who doubt their existence.” “What is happening in this region is a monumental crime against the natural world, the tribes, the fauna and is further testimony to the complete irrationality with which we, the ‘civilized' ones, treat the world,” Meirelles said. Apparently, more than 100 uncontacted tribes remain worldwide, with half living in Brazil or Peru. Extraordinary.
Unbelievable photo of one of the world's last uncontacted tribes - TedBlog

Extraordinary indeed. It was reported as breaking news at GVO on May 23rd, translated into Portuguese and Chinese, and launched into global awareness via the blogosphere. It took a week for the mainstream media to wake up to the “old news” but the pictures were still amazing and blogs were quick to point out that the media launched its stories without respecting the elementary rules of attribution.

Êta racinha miserável. Espera passar um tempo (cinco dias) e depois publica como se fosse furo deles. Seguem tratando a Amazônia como uma terra exótica, pois não aprofundam na questão que mais preocupa ao sertanista José Carlos dos Reis Meirelles Júnior, que é “O começo do fim da Amazônia peruana“. Leiam a mensagem que recebi hoje do jornalista Tom Phillips, correspondente no Brasil do diário inglês The Guardian: - Caro Altino, tudo bem com você? Você tem o contato do José Carlos dos Reis Meirelles Júnior por acaso? Um grande abraco. E assim foram dezenas de outros pedidos de contato com o sertanista que atendi por causa da reportagem sobre os índios isolados. Os russos são honestos. Confira aqui. Ou o brasileiro José Murilo Júnior, do Global Voices.
Racinha Miserável - Altino Machado

What a miserable class. They wait until some time has passed (five days) and then they publish as if the scoop was theirs. They keep treating the Amazon as an exotic land, as they do not go deep into the issues and that worries the backcountry expert José Carlos dos Reis Meirelles Júnior. [This ignorance] is “The Beginning of an End to the Peruvian Amazon“. Read the message I received today from journalist Tom Phillips –The Guardian's correspondent in Brazil — “My dear Altino, everything right with you? Is there a chance that you have the contact for José Carlos dos Reis Meirelles Júnior? A big hug.” There were many other contact requests with the explorer, which I have attended because of the report on the uncontacted Indians. The Russians are honest. Check it out. Or the Brazilian José Murilo Júnior, from Global Voices.
Miserable Class - Altino Machado

Altino, até os acreanos! Essa Renata Brasileiro, do Página 20 [leia aqui], é uma voadora. Ela escreveu: “A notícia veio à tona por meio da agência BBC e foi veiculada com destaque em quase todos os jornais on line no início da tarde de ontem. De acordo com a agência, as fotografias foram feitas durante uma missão da Funai, que incluiu um sobrevôo à região isolada”. Estou revoltado com a omissão da fonte correta pela mídia nacional e internacional, mas não poderia supor que seus vizinhos agissem dessa forma.
Tô com Altino e não abro! - Site Chico Bruno

Altino, even the media from Acre! This Renata Brasileiro, from Página 20 [read it here], is an amateur. She wrote “the news came to light through the BBC agency and made headlines in almost all of the online news portals yesterday afternoon. According to the agency, the pictures were made during a FUNAI [Brazilian National Indian Foundation] mission that included a “flight over the isolated region”. I am offended by the omission of the correct source by the national and international media, but I could never suppose that your neighbors would act this way.
I am with Altino all the way! - Site Chico Bruno

Quem ganhou ou vai ganhar dólares com a divulgação das fotos dos “índios invisíveis” do Acre? Altino Machado, não se iluda. Entendo a sua frustação de jornalista que não foi devidamente citado nas matérias que hoje correm o mundo. Da mesma forma, vejo que o sertanista José Carlos dos Reis Meireles está satisfeito porque o trabalho dele está sendo reconhecido, deu entrevistas para dezenas de jornais e revistas do mundo etc. Mas o que a Survival International (SI) tem a ver com as fotos e o trabalho da Funai? Nada. Mesmo assim a ONG tirou a sorte grande e obteve, com as suas técnicas de marketing, colar o nome da entidade em quase todas as matérias relevantes de jornais e revistas mundiais que publicaram matérias sobre as fotos dos índios isolados, sem ter dado um centavo para tornar realidade o que vimos em primeira mão neste blog e na Terra Magazine.
Devolva os dólares, Survival! - Ambiente Acreano

Who will or not earn dollars with the disclosure of the “Invisible Indians” from Acre? Don't fool yourself, Altino Machado. I understand your journalist's frustration with not being properly attributed in the articles which are now running around the world. In the same way, I see that the backcountry scout José Carlos dos Reis Meireles is happy that his work is being recognized as he gave interviews to dozens of global newspapers and magazines, etc. But what has the [NGO] Survival International (SI) to do with the pictures and with FUNAI's missions? Nothing. Even then the NGO won the jackpot, and with their marketing techniques, they succeeded in pasting the organization's name over the pictures of the uncontacted Indians, without putting out a cent to make what we saw first happen in your blog and in Terra Magazine.
Turn back the dollars, Survival! - Ambiente Acreano

Altino's blog is really a special source of information on the Amazon, and it is not by chance that his posts are now being featured in Terra Magazine, an innovative online editorial project that also claims a scoop for the pictures of the ‘Invisible Indians'. But while the online media environment still struggles to reach balanced business models, having to deal with so many new webnative variables, we may be witnessing the emergence of a time where 'scoops' of the old exclusive kind may not be what really matters. The discursive and flowing conversation of many voices in an open debate with mainstream authoritative media sources may be the kind of collaborative “scoop” we all are seeking right now.

The first steps toward building this new open media environment may be the recognition of the value of all those voices, which could start with simple and easy respect for attribution netiquete by the mainstream media… and bloggers.

2 comments · »»

May 24th, 2008

Brazil: Can the Amazon problem be solved with new management? 

Jose Murilo Junior · 00:42 · Americas
lingua → pt · es · zht · zhs

Changing the command in a Brazilian Ministry used to be a domestic affair, but the resignation of the renowned rainforest defender Marina Silva from the Environmental Ministry has sparked global reactions. Ms. Silva's replacement was quickly announced by President Lula, through the designation of Carlos Minc, former environmental secretary of Rio de Janeiro State and one of the founders of the Green Party in Brazil. Here are some comments from local bloggers on the shifting sands of public environmental policy.

Marina Silva, former Brazilian Environment MinisterCarlos Minc, Brazilian Environment Minister
Marina Silva - # - Carlos Minc

Ao deixar o ministério, a ex-seringueira e ex-empregada doméstica alfabetizada aos 17 anos, conseguiu gerar, dentro e fora do País, uma repercussão que suplantou aquelas que ocorriam eventualmente com a queda de algum titular do Ministério da Fazenda. Ela espera do sucessor Carlos Minc, como demonstração de continuidade da política ambiental, que resista à pressão do governador Blairo Maggi, do Mato Grosso, que atua contra a manutenção da resolução do Conselho Monetário Nacional que, a partir de 1º de julho, obriga o sistema financeiro a exigir regularidade ambiental como condição para o crédito rural na Amazônia… Marina Silva disse que quando se ocupa um espaço de poder, mesmo sendo algo pequeno, como uma coluna de jornal, sofremos a tentação de querer olhar as pessoas de cima para baixo. ” - Aprendi, e não foi agora, mas com muitas pessoas ao longo da vida, como Chico Mendes e dom Moacir Grechi, que a gente tem que olhar de baixo para cima. De baixo para cima a gente consegue enxergar o que está acima de nós. A Amazônia está acima de nós. E com esse olhar a gente é capaz de enxergar que, para fazer algo que seja bom, é preciso se colocar numa perspectiva de serviço, que também pode ser o gesto de abrir o caminho para que outro ocupe o seu lugar. Eu já disse que é melhor ver o filho vivo no colo de outro a vê-lo jazer no próprio colo.”
“A Amazônia está acima de nós” - Altino Machado

By leaving the ministry, the ex-rubber tapper and ex-domestic worker, who learned to read only when she was 17 years old [and later to become Brazil's youngest senator at the age of 36], has generated — inside and outside the country — a reverberation that overshadows those that eventually occurred with the fall of former powerful finance ministers. She hopes that her replacement in the ministry, Carlos Minc, will be able to assure the continuity of the government environmental policy, resisting the pressure that comes from Blairo Maggi, the governor of Mato Grosso State who is working against retaining the National Monetary Council resolution that will oblige the financial system to require conforming with environmental regulations as a precondition for access to rural credit in the Amazon…. Marina Silva has declared that when you are in a position of power, even if it is something small (the editor of a newspaper column, for example), we suffer the temptation to look at people from the top down. — “I've learned, and it was not now but with many people I had the opportunity to meet along my life, people like Chico Mendes and Dom Moacir Grechi, that we have to look from the bottom up. From the bottom up we are able to watch what is above us. The Amazon is above us. And with such a look we are able to see that, in order to do something that is really good, we have to put ourselves in the perspective of service, which can also mean the gesture of cleaning the path so that another person can take your place. I've said before that it's better to see your son alive on someone else's lap than to see him dead on your own lap.”
“The Amazon is above us” - Altino Machado

Coleguinhas, preparem-se. Minc vem aí. O novo ministro do Meio Ambiente desembarcará em Brasília para almoçar, hoje, com a ex-ministra Marina Silva e depois se reunir com Lula no Palácio do Planalto. Doravante, o ministério deixará de ser uma fonte de notícias eventuais. Minc é mediático. Está para a internet, digamos assim, como Marina estaria mais para o rádio (sem desapreço a esse, pelo contrário). Aprontará quase todo santo dia. E os meios de comunicação serão obrigados a destacar jornalistas para cobrir todos os seus passos. Um dia, como na semana passada, ele é capaz de baixar a lenha no seu futuro colega Mangabeira Unger, da Secretaria Especial de Ações de Longo Prazo, designado por Lula para cuidar do Programa Amazônia Sustentável. No outro, de sugerir o nome de Jorge Viana, ex-governador do Acre, para a tarefa que caberá a Unger. E no seguinte de elogiar Unger e dizer que ele poderá fazer um bom trabalho. É um hábil manipulador de palavras, idéias e conceitos, assim como seu novo patrão, Lula. Prestem atenção no que ele disse ontem sobre o fato de ter batido o recorde de concessões de licenças ambientais para obras como secretário do Meio Ambiente no Rio de Janeiro: “- Você pode ser rápido e rigoroso. Não é porque um licenciamento demora três anos que isso é garantia de defesa do ecossistema. Podem ficar três anos demorando com a burocracia e ser um licenciamento frouxo.” Os repórteres anotaram o que ele disse. Ninguém o contestou. Repórteres têm pouco tempo para pensar a respeito do que ouvem. E parte deles não sabe o que pensar. No caso, Minc limitou-se a driblar a provocação que lhe haviam feito.
A Amazônia é nossa? Uma ova! - Blog do Noblat

Hey colleagues, get ready! Minc is coming. The new environmental minister will land in Brasilia to have lunch today with ex-minister Marina Silva, and later meet with Lula at the Planalto Palace. From now on, the ministry will not be a sole source of news. Minc is media-minded. He tends to use the Internet, as Marina leans to, should we say, the radio (no disregard here for the radio, on the contrary). He will bustle every single day, and the media will have to appoint reporters to follow him around. On one day, as it happened last week, he is capable of chastising his future colleague Mangabeira Unger from the Special Secretariat for Long Term Actions, the man designated by Lula do run the Sustainable Amazon Program. On another, he is ready to suggest the name of Jorge Viana, an ex-governor from Acre state, to take Mangabeira's post. Next day, he is ready to praise Unger saying that he is apt to do a great work. Minc is good at manipulating words, ideas and concepts, just like his new boss, Lula. Take a good look at what he said yesterday when asked about the record number of environmental permits to big infrastructure projects granted by him as environmental secretary of Rio de Janeiro State: “You can be fast and rigorous. It is not because it took 3 years that a permit will guarantee protection to the ecosystem. You can wait 3 years lost in bureaucracy and obtain a loose licensing.” The reporters just took note of what he said, and nobody contested. Reporters have little time to think about what they hear, and many of them just don't know what to think. In this case, Minc has limited himself to banter the provocation addressed at him.
The Amazon is ours? Bullshit! - Blog do Noblat

De coletinho folgado e cabelos longos, ainda que ameaçados de extinção, o homem é um happening midiático, uma metralhadora de sentenças bombásticas. Comparado à sua antecessora, a discreta Marina Silva, um símbolo da causa, que lembra uma orquídea em sua exuberância frágil, Carlos Minc está mais para uma motosserra ensandecida varrendo uma plantação de soja.
A matraca solta de Minc - Luis Nassif Online

With his loose vest and long hair, although those are under the risk of extinction, the man is a media event, a machine gun of bombastic sentences. Compared to his predecessor, the discreet Marina Silva, someone who reminds us of an orchid in its fragile exuberance and a very symbol of the cause, Carlos Minc is closer to a mad chainsaw sweeping a soybean plantation.
A matraca solta de Minc - Luis Nassif Online

There has been much speculation about the reasons that led Marina Silva to resign. She has mentioned the lack of political support, and some commenters talk about clashes with Lula's powerful cabinet chief Dilma Roussef, responsible for the government's flagship program for accelerated growth. Another strong rumor tells about the designation of Roberto Mangabeira Unger to coordinate an Amazon sustainable development plan as a last blow to the former minister. In fact, the role of Mangabeira — a former Harvard law professor — in the Brazilian environmental policy decision making has become a whole issue unto itself for bloggers.

Há duas versões para a designação de Mangabeira. Uma delas, corrente no PT, diz que Lula agiu de caso pensado para deixar a ministra sem saída. No Planalto, conta-se outra história, que não desmente a a primeira versão, mas deixa depreender que tudo não passou de um lampejo de Lula… afinal, o ministro não era diretamente parte da disputa (os ministérios do Meio Ambiente, da Agricultura, do Desenvolvimento Agrário e da Integração Nacional). Lula alegaria depois que não poderia indicar um deles [para coordenar o PAS] pois cada um “puxaria a brasa para sua sardinha”… O ministério de Marina nunca deu a ele a oportunidade de uma conversa, solicitada mas ignorada. O Desenvolvimento Agrário também não lhe deu propriamente uma recepção festiva. Mas Mangabeira tinha aliados e foi buscar na Amazônia, um tema sob a atenção mundial, a inspiração para seus primeiros escritos, além da Defesa Nacional… O discurso que o ministro costurou sobre a Amazônia, porém, é o discurso que faz hoje o governo sobre a região… Mangabeira ganhou pontos no Planalto quando apresentou o projeto que propõe um novo modelo para as relações entre o capital e o trabalho.
Em menos de um ano, Mangabeira amplia tarefas, mas é dúvida no PAS - Acerto de Contas

There are two versions offered for Mangabeira's designation [to coordinate the Amazon Sustainable Plan - PAS]. The current version inside the PT [Worker's Party], tells about Lula intentionally pushing the former minister [Marina Silva] out with the move. But in the surroundings of the Planalto Palace another tale is being told, which does not completely contradict the other version, but shows signs that the move came as an ‘insight' from Lula… after all, Mangabeira was not directly involved in the dispute [for the PAS coordination] (among the ministries of Environment, Agriculture, Agrarian Development and National Integration). Lula would have claimed that he could not designate one of these ministries [to coordinate the PAS] because they would “draw the embers next to their sardine” [put their interests first]… Marina's ministry has never paid any attention to Mangabaeira's talks. He tried to have her attention but was ignored, and the Agrarian Development Ministry also showed no enthusiasm for his ideas. Nevertheless, Mangabeira had his allies and reached out to the Amazon — an issue under international scrutiny — to find inspiration for his first writings…. The speech articulated by Mangabeira about the Amazon though, is the speech adopted by the government for the region…. Mangabeira has earned points with Lula when he presented a project which proposes a new relationship model between capital and work.
In less than a year, Mangabeira has amplified his scope, but he is still not confirmed at PAS - Acerto de Contas


Managabeira's new model
asserts that the Amazon must be saved from disorganized economic activity, that it needs a planned relationship between preservation and development. “The only way to preserve the Amazon is to develop it.” And, of course, it is the role of Brazil to do this. Interestingly, a NYTimes article published last weekend ('Whose Rain Forest Is This, Anyway?‘) played a central part in the debate, bringing back things like an Al Gore 1989's remark saying that “contrary to what Brazilians think, the Amazon is not their property, it belongs to all of us”. Bloggers, as expected, respond and comment.

Agora, depois que a Europa e América do Norte poluem o planeta à vontade e os Estados Unidos se recusam a assinar o Protocolo de Kioto para proteger a produção poluidora de suas indústrias, querem botar a mão no pulmão do mundo. Justamente a nossa Amazônia.
NY Times critica Brasil por defender a Amazônia - Aos Quatro Ventos

Now, after Europe and North America have polluted the planet as they wished, and that the US refuses to sign the Kyoto Protocol that would help the protection against its polluting industries, they want to land their hands on “the lungs of the Earth”. Which is our Amazon.
NY Times criticizes Brazil for defending the Amazon - Aos Quatro Ventos

Se a Amazônia, sob uma ótica humanista, deve ser internacionalizada, internacionalizemos também as reservas de petróleo do mundo inteiro. O petróleo é tão importante para o bem-estar da humanidade quanto a Amazônia é para o nosso futuro. Apesar disso, os donos das reservas sentem-se no direito de aumentar ou diminuir a extração de petróleo e subir ou não o seu preço. Os ricos do mundo, no direito de queimar esse imenso patrimônio da humanidade. Da mesma forma, o capital financeiro dos países ricos deveria ser internacionalizado. Se a Amazônia é uma reserva para todos os seres humanos, ela não pode ser queimada pela vontade de um dono, ou de um país. Queimar a Amazônia é tão grave quanto o desemprego provocado pelas decisões arbitrárias dos especuladores globais. Não podemos deixar que as reservas financeiras sirvam para queimar países inteiros na volúpia da especulação… Internacionalizemos as crianças tratando-as, todas elas, não importando o país onde nasceram, como patrimônio que merece cuidados do mundo inteiro. Ainda mais do que merece a Amazônia. Quando os dirigentes tratarem as crianças pobres do mundo como um patrimônio da humanidade, eles não deixarão que elas trabalhem quando deveriam estudar; que morram quando deveriam viver. Como humanista, aceito defender a internacionalização do mundo. Mas, enquanto o mundo me tratar como brasileiro, lutarei para que a Amazônia seja nossa. Só nossa.
Cristovam: A internacionalização do mundo - Vi o mundo

If the Amazon Region, from a humanist's point of view, has to be internationalized, then we should internationalize the oil reserves of the entire the world as well. Oil is just as important to the well being of humanity as the Amazon Region for our future. Nevertheless, the owners of oil reserves feel it is in their right to increase or decrease oil production and to raise or lower the price. The rich of the world, feel they have the right to burn this valuable possession of humanity. Similarly, the financial capital of the wealthy nations should be internationalized. If the Amazon Region is a natural reserve for every human being, then it could not be burned down by the decision of a landowner or a country. To burn down the Amazon Region is so tragic, as the unemployment provoked by the arbitrary decisions of world wide speculators. We cannot permit that the world΄s financial reserves serve to burn down entire nations according to the whims of speculation…. We could internationalize the children treating all of them, regardless of their birthplace, as a posession which deserves the care and attention of the entire world. Even more so than the Amazon Region. When the world leaders attend to the world΄s poor children as possessions of Humanity, they will no longer permit that these children work when they should be studying, that they die when they should be living. As a humanist I accept to defend the internationalization of the world. So long as the world treats me as a Brazilian, I will fight so that our Amazon Region will be ours. Only ours. [this is a re-blogged piece of a classical article by former Brazilian Education minister, Cristovam Buarque]
Cristovam Buarque: Internationalization of the world - Cristovam Buarque - Vi o mundo

O assunto mais badalado dos últimos dias, nas redações do Brasil, é a reportagem dominical do novo correspondente do New York Times, Alexei Barrionuevo, com o sugestivo título ‘A Amazônia pertence ao Brasil – ou ao mundo todo?‘. Na caserna, já estão lá uns generais e coronéis de pijama todos ouriçados. Quem lê o texto sem preconceitos ou pré-concepções, no entanto, descobre outra coisa: é honesto. É a típica pauta que só um repórter estrangeiro recém-chegado ao Brasil perceberia. Trata da paranóia sempre presente por aqui de que alguém, em algum lugar, nos quer roubar a Amazônia. Não fala de uma ameaça real. Quem conhece o Brasil há muito não se surpreende com esta discussão; aqueles que chegam de fora ficam surpresos com a idéia que ronda as teorias conspiratórias da direita…
O Brasil tem, sim, uma responsabilidade perante o mundo de preservar sua floresta. É uma responsabilidade também perante nós mesmos. Sem Amazônia, não há chuva do centro-oeste ao sul para irrigar as plantações que sustentam o crescimento ou encher as hidrelétricas que acendem São Paulo e o Rio. Então, do ponto de vista pragmático, não há dúvidas de que preservar é bom negócio. Como preservar? Fechar tudo e não deixar ninguém mais entrar? Como distribuir os títulos de terra para quem já está por lá? Como instituir a lei numa terra em que deputados-policiais matam gente com serra elétrica? Como erguer centros de pesquisa brasileiros com cientistas de ponta transferidos ou nascidos na região? Ninguém vai tomar a Amazônia – a política internacional não comporta esse tipo de ação. Mas, por trás do pedido de demissão da ministra Marina Silva, está um fato simples que só. O Brasil ainda não sabe o que quer fazer com sua maior floresta. E, enquanto não soubermos o que fazer com a mata, ela seguirá sendo destruída e uns tantos entre nós, por puro sentimento de culpa, continuarão achando que alguém lá fora vai tomá-la na força. Talvez porque, no fundo, bem lá no fundo, saibam que temos culpa no cartório.
A Amazônia é nossa? - Pedro Dória Weblog

The most buzzed issue of the last days, in all news rooms in Brazil, is the Sunday report from the new New York Times correspondent in Brazil, Alexei Barrionuevo, which presents a suggestive title: “Does the Amazon Belong to Brazil - or the whole world?”. From the military barracks, we can almost hear the unease coming from old generals and colonels in pajamas. But, those who read the text free from prejudices and pre-conceptions, are able to find out one thing: it is an honest piece. It is the typical issue a foreign correspondent recently arrived in Brazil would catch. The article describes the always present local paranoia that someone, somewhere, wants to steal the Amazon from us. It does not speak about a real threat. Those who have known Brazil for a while are not surprised with this debate; those arriving from abroad get startled by the notion embelished in the conspiratory theories from the right….
Yes, Brazil does hold a responsibility before the world to preserve its forest. It is also a responsibility before ourselves. Without the Amazon, there will be no rain from the center-west to the south to irrigate the plantations that are supporting the economic growth, or to fill the hydroelectric reservoirs that lights São Paulo and Rio. So, from a pragmatic point of view, there is no doubt that preserving is good and sound business. How to preserve? Should we close it all and don't let anybody in? How to distribute land titles to the ones already there? How to implement the law in a land where representatives or policemen kill people with chainsaws? How to develop Brazilian research centers to hold top scientists from the region or from abroad? Nobody will take the Amazon from us — international politics does not fit such move. But behind the resignation of ex-minister Marina Silva there is just one simple fact. Brazil doesn't know what to do with its biggest forest. While we do not know what to do with the forest it will continue to be destroyed, and some people among us, induced by this guilty feeling, will keep thinking that someone will take it by force. Maybe because, deep inside, way deep inside, they know that we are indeed guilty for all that.
The Amazon is Ours? - Pedro Dória Weblog


Along the spectrum that lies between
preservation and development in regard of public policies, we can still find different aproaches focusing on the cultural richness that bonds the Amazon together in its full splendor. These aspects are shouting to be recognized by everyday facts, but they are not priorities in any of the available political discourses.

É sabido hoje que o conhecimento de boa parte das riquezas amazônicas está profundamente assimilado na cultura de seus povos nativos, remetendo a questão de sua exploração racional e econômica ao respeito e conservação do patrimônio ´étno-botânico´ dos povos da floresta. Tal conceito associa as riquezas locais ao conhecimento acumulado pelas culturas ancestrais da região, fazendo com que flora, fauna e cultura estejam intimamente ligados nessa relação sinérgica de conhecimento, respeito, uso e conservação. Mas se a preservação física e tangível dos ´povos da floresta´ é uma questão de caráter natural, imunológico e médico, sua preservação ´enquanto cultura´ possui um forte componente político, muito mais controlável e ameno à intervenção do Estado. Preservação cultural, em linguagem leiga, implica dar condições às populações indígenas de seguirem com seu próprio modo de vida, baseado em crenças e costumes milenares de seus ancestrais. Na base de tudo isso estaria a própria ´visão cósmica´ desses grupos, seus ´mitos teológicos´ inclusive… É urgente a necessidade de conceber a Amazônia, em suas imensas possibilidades econômicas, como um amálgama de componentes indissociáveis e que inclui, necessariamente, o natural e o cultural: a floresta e o homem.
A floresta e o homem da floresta, por George Felipe Dantas - Vi o mundo

It is known today that the knowledge about great part of the Amazonian richness is deeply assimilated in the culture of its native people, addressing the issue of its rational economic exploration directly to the [need to] respect and preserve the ethno-botanical heritage of the forest and its dwellers. Such a concept associates the local wealth with the knowledge acumulated by ancestral cultures of the region, uniting flora, fauna and culture into an intimate connection that presents a synergistic relationship of knowledge, respect, use and preservation. But while the physical and tangible preservation of the ‘people of the forest' entangles the natural, immunological and medical aspects, the preservation of the cultural aspect holds a strong political component, much more mild and manageable from the point of view of state intervention. Cultural preservation, in common language, means to maintain the conditions for the indigenous populations to keep following its proper way of life, based on ancient beliefs from its ancestors. At the foundation of all this sits these groups' very ‘cosmic vision', including their ‘teological myths…. We have the urgent need to conceive the Amazon, and its huge economic possibilities, as an amalgam of inseparable components which necessarily includes the natural and the cultural: the forest and the man.
The forest and the man of the forest, by George Felipe Dantas - Vi o mundo
1 comment · »»

May 23rd, 2008

Americas

Altino Machado presents pictures [PT] of what could be the last isolated ethnic group in the Brazilian Amazon rainforest, the so called ‘Invisible Indians'. The pictures were taken from a plane by José Carlos dos Reis Meirelles Jr., coordinator of FUNAI's [Brazilian National Indian Foundation] Ethno-environmental Protection Front, in the region close to Feijó, in Acre State. The Indians reacted by attacking the plane with bow and arrows.

May 16th, 2008

Brazil: The prohibited march that keeps marching This is a Video post

Jose Murilo Junior · 00:49 · Americas
lingua → pt

After a long period of dictatorship, and since the political liberalization of the 80's, Brazilians have learned to value freedom of expression as a key democratic right. But the last weeks have shown that some issues such as marijuana legalization still don't hold the status of being entitled to a legally sanctioned public debate. This year's edition of the Marijuana March was prohibited by courts in 9 capital cities across the country due to allegations of illegal promotion of drug use. The theme provoked responses by many local bloggers.

Enquanto em alguns países o uso da maconha é restritamente aceito, no Brasil esse tipo de debate não é nem ao menos permitido. Falar sobre maconha se tornou mais que um tabu, visto que poucos dias antes da marcha acontecer ela foi proibida pelo Ministerio Público, decisão essa que impediu um recurso contrário devido a proximidade da data do evento. Fica clara a incapacidade desse país em permitir com que seus cidadãos possam debater em prol das relações que temos com alguns problemas vividos por aqui. Seria uma passeata, apologia? Debater se tornou influenciar? Alguns termos estão muito mal definidos na cabeça do poder legislativo, o que impede o cidadão de se reunir para reivindicar o que lhe julga de direito: a liberdade de expressão.
Fascismo Tropical - Obrog!!!

While in some countries marijuana use is accepted with restrictions, in Brazil the debate on the issue is not even permitted. Talking about marijuana has turned into a taboo, as the march was prohibited by the Public Ministry a few days before scheduled date, leaving no chance for appeals due to the lack of available time. It becomes clear the country is unable to allow its citizens to debate their relationship with some of the problems we have around here. Should we label a demonstration for legal reform as drug use promotion? To debate necessarily means to influence? There are some terms that are not well defined in the heads of the justices, which results in hindering the citizens from claiming their right: the freedom to express themselves.
Tropical Fascism - Obrog!!!

Obviamente, decisões judiciais não se descumprem, mesmo que as achemos inconstitucionais, pois gozam da presunção de legitimidade necessária à segurança jurídica das relações humanas e sociais reguladas pelo direito, valor maior a ser preservado no sistema jurídico. Mas nada impede que sejam objeto de debate acadêmico e mesmo político, sob um ponto de vista crítico. Os direitos à livre expressão do pensamento e à reunião são garantidos pelo artigo 5º de nossa Constituição como valores fundamentais do regime democrático. Princípio democrático é a norma constitucional que determina não apenas a adoção de decisões por uma maioria legislativa ou social, mas também - e em especial -, a preservação dos direitos das minorias… Subtrair de parcela da cidadania o direito de protestar contra a vigência de qualquer lei, penal ou não, é ferir de morte o regime democrático. É subtrair-lhe o sentido, traduzindo-se em ato imperial, impróprio ao Estado Democrático de Direito… Se postular pela revogação de uma lei não é conduta salvaguardada pelo direito de livre expressão, que condutas da cidadania seriam salvaguardadas por este direito? Posso expressar que sou contra as normas vigentes, mas não posso dizer quais e as respectivas razões?… Fica agora a questão: será que passeatas em favor da descriminalização do aborto e outras semelhantes também serão proibidas? Podem também serem compreendidas como um estímulo à prática do aborto, conduta tipificada em nossa ordem penal. Se forem, obviamente o sentido da democracia brasileira se esvairá.
A Marcha da Maconha e o direito à livre expressão, por Pedro Estavam Serrano - Última Instância

Obviously, court decisions are to be followed, even the ones we consider as unconstitutional, as they hold the necessary presumption of legitimacy for the juridical safety of social and human relations regulated by the law — which is the higher value to be preserved in a legal system. But it does not mean that those decisions can't be the object of academic and even political debate, under a critical perspective.The right to freedom of expression and to free gathering are guaranteed by the 5th article of our Constitution as fundamental values of the democratic regime. The democratic principle is the constitutional rule that determines not only the adoption of decision by a social or legislative majority, but also — and especially — the protection of the rights of minorities…. To subtract the right to protest against the terms of any law, criminal or not, from part of the citizenry is to injure to death the democratic regime. It subtracts its meaning, and becomes an imperial act, unsuitable for a Legal Democratic State…. If the postulation for the revoking of a law is not safeguarded by the presumption of the right to free expression, which behaviors could be protected by this right? Am I able to express that I am against the current laws, but can't tell which of them and why?… Now a question starts: should pro-abortion demonstrations and other similar ones be also prohibited? Can it be understood as a promotion of abortion practice, which is a conduct listed in our criminal rule? If it can, the meaning of the Brazilian democracy will vanish.
The Marihuana March and the right to free expression, by Pedro Estavam Serrano - Última Instância


Cannabis was brought to Brazil
by the first Africans arriving from Angola, and it's use and cultivation was encouraged by the Portuguese, which resulted in it being culturally assimilated by the mestizos and by some Indian groups. Medical use was also common, mostly during the second part of the 19th century, and even advertised in Brazilian medical journals up to the first years of the 20th century. Some commenters focused on the cultural aspects of the censorship.

Tal proibição numa cidade como Salvador, afronta um significado étnico e cultural do uso dessa planta, que é uma parte da herança cultural africana. Sobre esse aspecto assim se expressou Gilberto Freyre: “as tradições religiosas, como outras formas de cultura, ou de culturas negras, para cá transportadas, junto com a sombra das próprias árvores sagradas, com o cheiro das próprias plantas místicas – a maconha ou a diamba, por exemplo – é que vêm resistindo mais profundamente, no Brasil, à desafricanização. Muito mais do que o sangue, a cor e a forma dos homens. A Europa não as vencerá.” (Sobrados e Mucambos, 2003, p.797). Poderia Gilberto Freyre ser enquadrado como “apologista” da maconha?
Democracia Cultural e a Marcha da Maconha - Blog Oficial do Tio Tod

Such prohibition in a city like Salvador, insults the meaning of the ethnic and cultural use of this plant, which is part of the African cultural heritage. About this aspect, Gilberto Freyre [Brazilian sociologist, cultural anthropologist, historian, journalist and congressman] framed it this way: “the religious traditions, as other forms of culture, or black cultures, transported to here, along with the shadows of the sacred trees themselves, with the smell of the very mystical plants — the marijuana, or diamba, for example — are the ones that are resistent in a more profound way, in Brazil, to ‘disafricanization'. It is much more than the blood, the color and the form of the men. Europe won't win over them.” (Sobrados e Mucambos, 2003, p.797). Could Gilberto Freyre be framed as a marijuana use advocate?
Cultural Democracy and the Marihuana March - Blog Oficial do Tio Tod

Recentemente, o Ministro da Cultura Gilberto Gil apresentou uma proposta p/ tombar a Ayahuasca, planta alucinógena que compõe o chá do Santo Daime, como patrimônio cultural nacional. Se a “Pequena Morte” pode, por que não a Manga Rosa, o Cabeça de Nego, o Cabrobó?… Enquanto não se chega a um consenso, e muito menos a uma solução p/ o problema, o presidente do Conselho Federal da OAB, Cezar Britto, defende a liberdade de expressão como bem primordial de um Estado democrático: “O maior mal que se pode impor a um país é calar, censurar o pensamento.”
A marcha que não quer calar - Viva la Brasa

Recently, the Minister of Culture Gilberto Gil presented a proposal to register Ayahuasca, an psychoactive mix of plants that composes the Santo Daime and Hoasca tea, as a National Cultural Heritage. If the ‘small death‘ can, why not the ‘Manga Rosa', the ‘Cabeça de Nego' and the ‘Cabrobó' [popular types of Brazilian marijuana]? …. While we don't reach a consensus, and even less a solution to the problem, the President of the Brazilian Bar Association Federal Council, Cezar Britto, defends the freedom of expression as a fundamental asset of a democratic state: “The biggest evil we can impose to a country is to mute, to censor thought”.
The march that wont' mute - Viva la Brasa


The 20th century brought about
the spreading of the notion of the plant as a great danger to individuals and society, and also a surge of international agreements for the adjustment of national laws criminalizing the use of cannabis. Ecologia Cognitiva offers a good account and links showing how the the early Twentieth Century American movie industry played a key role in disseminating the new cultural references for the plant, and the ideological elements displayed by some commenters adds up to the notion that politics seems to play a role bigger than science when it comes down to defining how harmful cannabis really is.

Ao examinarmos os fatos percebemos claramente que os mais comuns e perigosos mitos e inverdades sobre a substância ilegal mais utilizada no mundo são concebidos e difundidos pelo governo americano, em desacordo com as descobertas oficiais… Em 1936 o filme Reefer Madness (vale à pena assistir) inaugura a perseguição mostrando como apenas uma tragada da fumaça maldita pode levar jovens sadios a uma escalada de violência e luxúria que resulta em morte e insanidade. Apesar da declaração de que os fatos narrados no filme não apresentavam nenhuma relação com pessoas ou situações reais, o filme explicita que cumpre a missão de informar a população incauta sobre o ‘novo inimigo público número um' (veja ao lado)… O famoso estudo de 1972 da ‘National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse', formada por especialistas e congressistas convocados pelo então presidente Nixon, sugeria no relatório final que “deveríamos desenfatizar a maconha como um problema” e afirmava que “o uso de drogas por prazer ou outros motivos não-medicinais não são inerente irresponsáveis”. Tal resultado certamente não atendeu à agenda política da época e foi totalmente ignorado pelo governo — o período que se seguiu foi marcado por grande censura à pesquisa com psicoativos.
Em 1988, após 4 anos de estudos envolvendo centenas de testemunhas e milhares de páginas em documentação, Francis Young, Chefe do Depto. Jurídico do DEA publicou relatório onde sugeriu uma reclassificação de periculosidade da cannabis declarando: “é razoável concluir que existem utilizações seguras para a maconha sob supervisão médica — afirmar o contrário constitui claro erro de julgamento”. Novamente os estudos oficiais foram desconsiderados, e aproximadamente 10 anos depois o drug-czar do presidente Clinton (Barry Macfrey), afirma à imprensa que “não existe nenhum traço de evidência científica sobre segurança ou benefícios medicinais da maconha.”… Enquanto isso, na Europa, pesquisa encomendada pelo governo inglês em 1996 registrou parecer que também recomendava a reclassificação da substância, indicando que “os malefícios não devem ser superestimados: a cannabis não é venenosa e não apresenta algo grau de adição”. E o National Institute of Health (EUA) promoveu em 2001 workshop sobre as possíveis utilizações médicas da cannabis, e dentre as con