Global Voices » Paula Góes

Paulo Coelho Promotes “Pirated” Audiobook on YouTube

Paula Góes — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 12:38:28 +0000

Using his social networks to promote a pirate audio version of ‘The Alchemist', the Brazilian best selling writer Paulo Coelho proposes readers to show the industry “that “piracy” is not a threat to their business”.

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‘Follow the Pope's Lead,’ Brazil Tells Senate President

Paula Góes — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 21:36:01 +0000

On the heels of Pope Benedict XVI's sudden resignation, Brazilians in the full swing of Carnival called on the country's newly elected Senate president, who is at the center of a corruption investigation, to follow the example set by His Holiness and step down.

More than 1.5 million people have signed an online petition [pt] seeking the ouster of Renan Calheiros, who despite being investigated for embezzlement, forgery, and the use of a false document, was elected head of the Senate on February 1 in a secret ballot with 56 voting in favor and 18 against.

The accusations of corruption leveled at Calheiros by the country's top prosecutor were not made public until the same day of his victory [pt]. Calheiros himself did not mention the investigation in his opening address as Senate president.

Outraged by the secrecy surrounding the affair, Brazilians quickly mobilized at the time against Calheiros, a member of the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB). Carnival revelers took advantage of the pontiff's departure to reignite protests amid the festivities.

Blogger Genésio Braganza wrote [pt] that the Pope has provided a great example for Brazilian politicians:

Enquanto na renúncia do Sumo Pontífice as reações no mundo são de felicitações diante da grandeza da atitude, nos casos brasileiros, a ausência de renúncia causa rubor, indignação, insatisfação, tristeza e frustração!

While the world reacts to the Supreme Pontiff's resignation with congratulations for the greatness of His attitude, in the case of Brazilians, the absence of resignation causes blushing, anger, dissatisfaction, sadness and frustration!

“Renan, if I can you, you can, too. Resign!”. The Pope sends a message to Renan in a photomontage by badarts blog.

Neither the high-ranking position nor the allegations of corruption are anything new for Calheiros, re-elected in 2010 for his third term. The senator from the northeastern state of Alagoas was head of the upper chamber from 2005 to 2007, until a corruption scandal nicknamed “Renangate” [pt] forced him to resign. With the move, the congressman avoided a possible disqualification from holding office, which would have prevented his re-election for the current term.

If convicted this time by the Supreme Federal Court (STF), Calheiros will face up to 23 years in jail and a fine.

Journalist Marco Eusébio commented on the same day of the bombshell news [pt]:

A renúncia do papa Bento XVI é, disparado, o assunto líder em comentários hoje no “Trending Topics” do Twitter Brasil. Usuários sugerem que o novo presidente do Senado, Renan Calheiros (PMDB-AL), fiel seguidor do governo, seja qual for o governante, siga o exemplo do alemão. Doce ilusão, mas, é carnaval, e não custa fantasiar. Quem sabe cola, né?!

The resignation of Pope Benedict XVI is by far the top “Trending Topic” on Twitter Brazil today. Users suggest that the new Senate President Renan Calheiros (PMDB-ALAGOAS), a faithful follower of the government, whoever the ruler is, follow the footsteps of the German [pontiff]. A sweet dream, but it is Carnival and it costs nothing to fantasize. Who knows?!

The message below, by Tico Santa Cruz, was shared over 250 times on Twitter:

@Ticostacruz: Não sou Católico, então a Renuncia do Papa não me diz nada. Mas sou Brasileiro e a Renuncia do Renan Calheiros seria muito importante p mim

@Ticostacruz: I'm not Catholic, so the Pope's resignation means nothing to me. But I am Brazilian and Renan's resignation would be very important to me

Other tweets demonstrated the frustration and hope of the people:

@josealaide: Feliz Ano Novo a todos. O carnaval acabou. O ano começou. O Papa renunciou. O Renan ficou. E o povo… “dançou”.

@josealaide: Happy New Year everyone. Carnival is over. The year begins. The Pope has resigned. Renan carries on. And the people… “danced” [TN: slang for to come off badly].

@Nailormarques: O Papa renunciou. Chavez, Renan, Sarney vocês têm que se tocar, o prazo de validade já venceu.

@Nailormarques: The Pope has resigned. Chavez, Renan, Sarney you have to wake up, your shelf life has already passed.

And many protested with an added hint of typical Brazilian humor:

@fabricio_cunha: Especula-se um rodízio no triângulo política-religião-futebol. Renan é cotado para o Vaticano, Felipão para o Senado e o Papa p/ a seleção.

@fabricio_cunha: Rumors of a rotation policy in the politics-religion-football triangle. Renan is tipped to the Vatican, Scolari for the Senate and the Pope goes to the Brazilian National Team.

@athosronaldo: A gente faz um abaixo-assinado com mais de um milhão e trezentas mil assinaturas pela saída de Renan Calheiros e quem renuncia é o Papa.

@athosronaldo: We hold more than 1.3 million signatures in a petition to oust Renan and it is the Pope who resigns.

That online petition [pt] was set up in Avaaz by sales representative Emiliano Magalhães a few hours after Calheiros’ election and surpassed, in the heart of Carnival Sunday, the target established by the organizers of 1.36 million signatures, equivalent to 1 percent of the national electorate. The new goal is now 1.6 million – twice as many as the number of Calheiros’ electors. As of February 14, the petition was only 80,000 signatures shy of its target.

Although the petition has no value from the legal standing, it will be used to “stir things up in the media and demand the resignation of the Senate president”. The campaign's introduction reads [pt]:

Povo Brasileiro! Acabamos de ser chamados de Palhaços!!!
O Senador Renan Calheiros acaba de ser eleito Presidente do Senado com 56 votos secretos!! Isso é um absurdo! E não podemos ficar calados diante de tal ATROCIDADE!!!
Não podemos ficar de mãos atadas!

Brazilian people! We have just been made buffoons!!!
Senator Renan Calheiros has just been elected Senate president with 56 secret votes! This is absurd! And we shall not be silent in the face of such ATROCITY!!!
We must not have our hands tied!

The Carnival block party “Out Renan and the Guisers” refers to the 56 masked senators who voted in the dark for the Senate president.

Besides virtual petitions, the Brazilian population has been taking to the street throughout Brazil even over the bank holiday weekend to demand Calheiros’ impeachment or resignation. The Carnival block party “Out Renan and the Guisers” was quickly improvised in Rio de Janeiro on Ash Wednesday. According to the event page on Facebook [pt], the idea is simple:

Mask produced for the carnival block by Gustavo Fernochi. Instructions: “Save the image to your computer. At the time of printing, adjust the size of the paper. Power will always be with the people!”"

Produza sua máscara, leve sua vassoura, produza uma marchinhas e envie aos organizadores… use sua criatividade e arranje uma forma de protestar e se divertir ao mesmo tempo. A ideia é inovar, conscientizar, divertir, e principalmente: protestar.

Make your own mask, bring your broom, compose marchinhas and send them to the organizers… use your creativity and come up with a way to manifest and have fun at the same time. The idea is to innovate, educate, entertain, and most of all: to protest.

Revelers have not missed a samba beat, composing several satirical songs especially for the 2013 Carnival, such as Renan's Marchinha [pt] below. With lyrics by Carlos Cabalini, it could well have been the soundtrack of the carnival block party of the 840,809 people who voted for Calheiros:

Renan, Renan
Você não é culpado
A culpa é de quem
Te mandou lá pro Senado

Quem foi, quem foi
Quem foi que te elegeu?
Eu sei, eu sei quem foi
Esse otário foi eu…

Oh Renan, poor Renan
You're not in the wrong
The blame lies with whoever thought
that in the Senate you belong

But who was it, who was it -
Which idiot elected you so unduly?
I know who it was, I know -
That idiot was yours truly.

Many other public events are being organized by the group Fora Renan Calheiros [Renan Calheiros Out, pt] on Facebook, to culminate in major protests in several Brazilian cities and abroad on February 24. Since legal proceedings against Calheiros in Supreme Federal Court “shall take a little while” [pt] – perhaps long enough for the senator's term to come to an end – the Senate may come to inspire the upcoming Dia do Basta [Day of Enough] [pt], a series protests against political corruption to be held in more than 60 cities on April 19, 20, and 21.

The creative English translation of Renan's Marchinha was kindly provided by Andrew Cummings

Cicero Guedes, Brazilian Landless Leader is Murdered in Rio

Paula Góes — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 11:28:08 +0000

One of the main leaders of the landless movement in Brazil was shot dead on Saturday as he was cycling home in Rio de Janeiro state. Publishing a picture he took of Cicero Guedes, Marcos Pedlowski [pt] emphasises that “the loss is not only human, but deeply political. Besides being an exemplary man, husband and father, Cicero embodied the best qualities that true leaders must have”. According to the Catholic Church's Pastoral Land Commission (CPT), the number of land activists threatened has jumped from 125 to 347 between 2010 and 2011.

2012: Year of Milestones for Global Voices Lingua Project

Paula Góes — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 09:24:53 +0000

Check out our regional reviews Global Voices in 2012

We had a great 2012 in Lingua, the project that makes Global Voices truly global. This piece touches upon just a few of the milestones in a year where our reasons to celebrate were many: we have never translated this much, the community has never been this large, and we have never enjoyed this much media attention, or faced as many challenges, as we have in 2012.

Most Global Voices posts have been translated into at least one other language. All but one of the most popular 2012 stories have translations, ranging from one to 17 languages each. Our teams of volunteers produced a total of close to 18,000 translations in 33 languages in 2012. Effectively, since our launch in 2007, Lingua volunteers have produced nearly 72,300 translations. Which means we could reach a combined milestone of 100,000 translations by the end of 2013!

Lingua Project Global Voices in Malagasy

Milestones

In 2012, Global Voices in French achieved the 10,000 translations mark; Global Voices in Malagasy and in Bengali reached 5,000 posts, with Global Voices in Chinese not far away. With less than two years of launch, Global Voices in Greek published over 2,000 translations, whereas Global Voices in Spanish is almost certain to end it sixth year in 2013 with 20,000 translations.

Smaller languages have also experienced amazing growth, both in terms of the number of translations published and in community members, as well as in recognition. For the first time, Global Voices in German reached a 50 posts a month mark in an exceptionaly busy November. Our friends at Global Voices in Aymara, who often use internet cafes to upload translations, charmed the audience of the International Conference on Aymara Language and Culture in Iquique, Chile, talking about the project's contribution to preserving the language and dissemination of world history through translations.

Growth

Two new sites kicked off in 2012: Global Voices Bulgarian was launched in the first half of the year, and Global Voices in Amharic in the second half, bringing the total number of languages to 35. In addition to these, we were happy to see seven sites that had been inactive making a comeback: Global Voices in Myanmar/Burmese, Global Voices in Urdu, Global Voices in Turkish, Global Voices in Filipino, Global Voices in Indonesian, Global Voices in Swahili, and Global Voices in Farsi.

The overall interest in the Lingua community has been bigger than ever before, with most sites being flooded with applications from new volunteers. There are presently nearly 600 active translators in the community, an increase of over 200 active volunteers compared to last year. Global Voices in Japanese alone has 140 more translators than the team had in 2011, and Global Voices in Polish has received over 100 applications – how amazing is that? In 2013, we hope more of our volunteers will become more active.

Yet, we are still looking for volunteers to reactivate Global Voices in Hindi, Global Voices in Hebrew, which we hope to re-activate in 2013, and strengthen Global Voices in Cambodian, in Korean, in Macedonian, in Serbian and in Albanian. Being part of Global Voices is a very meaningful experience for our collaborators, and we are extremely grateful to each one of them. Would you care to join this amazing team?

Global Voices in Hungarian team meet up for a translation workshop and fun in Budapest, August 2012

Projects and changes

Growth apart, perhaps the most dramatic changes in Lingua project in recent years is the process that we no longer “just translate”, but we also produce news in a number of languages. As a consequence, Lingua is rapidly changing from a community of translators to include a community of multilingual content producers. These changes may point to an interesting future for the Lingua Project, and for Global Voices in general, towards a Multilingual Newsroom.

This experiment has allowed for very unusual language pairs, demanding more workflows and inspiring new ways of doing things, bringing a new set of skills to Lingua and many new challenges to editors: in 2012 we had French volunteers translating directly from the usual Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, German, but also from Russian, Chinese, Swahili, Arabic, Bengali, Bulgarian, Macedonian and Serbian. Besides changing the way we think about how to report global news, we can now welcome volunteers who do not speak English at all, as well as translators whose first language is English, making Lingua an even more inclusive project.

In 2012, our multilingual teams produced 712 posts originally in Amharic, Arabic, Bengali, Catalan, Chinese, Dutch, Filipino, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Swahili. Among the stories published in this experiment, a collaborative post about the resistance of Brazilian indigenous group Guarani Kaiowa written originally in Portuguese inspired collaboration of at least 9 people in 3 different continents, 5 countries, 7 cities – and the Global Voices 2012 fundraising campaign.

Recognition and partnerships

Global Voices in French posts republished in a dedicated section of Rue89 reached 3.5 million of page views in 2012. Since the partnership started in 2009, the popular French news website has helped us amplify the conversation even further in the francophone world. Global Voices in Italian and its on-going partnership with daily La Stampa has also made our stories go mainstream.

In 2012, Global Voices in Catalan enjoyed media attention for posts they produced about the volatile situation in Catalonia's politics, appearing on an Al Jazeera Live Stream episode and in the Washington Post.

In July, Lingua spearheaded a marathon to get the Declaration of Internet Freedom translated into as many languages as possible – together with people in our network, we converted that document into nearly 60 languages.

Europe in Crisis, the first of Global Voices e-books, has also been launched in Italian, Arabic, and Spanish translations, with and Portuguese and French coming soon. Some teams have already started to translate the content of our second e-book, African Voices of Hope and Change, published in English in mid-December.

In collaboration with the newsroom, Lingua was commissioned to provide translations into Arabic, French, and Spanish to the International Relations and Security Network (ISN), a provider of open access information services for international relations and security professionals.

Lingua translators have also been commissioned by the international nonprofit human rights organisation Witness to translate 35,000 words of its Video for Change Toolkit into Arabic, French, and Spanish, to be launched soon.

And to close the year in high style, right at the end of 2012 Global Voices was commissioned to provide translations into Arabic, French, Swahili, and Somali for Refugees United, a nonprofit organisation that aims to help refugees safely reconnect with missing family members.

Partnerships like these result in a modest but welcome income for our volunteer translators, and in the promotion of Lingua and the work our translators do. Should you like to support Lingua as a translation or media partner, or in any other way, please get in touch – we are open to whatever 2013 brings.

Cat Finds Home Thanks to Kids’ Facebook Campaign

Paula Góes — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 00:01:47 +0000

“‘My sister and I really want a cat. Our papa promises we can get one if we can get 1,000 likes'”

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Colombia/U.S.: “We Need to Talk About Coke”

Paula Góes — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 11:52:02 +0000

Colombia based American blogger Natalie Southwick writes about cocaine supply chain and asks her countrymen to think about how Americans may be perpetuating the cycle of violence and exploitation by feeding the demand for cocaine. “At the least, think before you inhale”.

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The United States: Structural Violence on the Global Frontier

Paula Góes — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 16:51:25 +0000

The Latin and Latin-American Student Association (AELLA) of the Graduate Center, City University of New York, invites you to participate in the free conference “Structural Violence on the Global Frontier: Central America, Mexico and the United States,” which will take place from the 4-6 of October, 2012 at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, The Graduate Center, CUNY and St. Mary's Church, respectively. The repercussions of anti-migratory political aggressiveness, deportations, those who go missing, the threats and the insecurity that attacks the lives of thousands of migrants are some of the subjects that will be discussed during the three days which will be full of activities. The conference will be transmitted live in the front page of Asuntos del Sur (Affairs of the South). www.asuntosdelsur.org

Spain: Proposed Changes for Abortion Law

Paula Góes — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 16:52:27 +0000

The 28th of September is the celebration of the Campaign for the Legalization of Abortion, which has taken place for years in Latin America and the Caribbean and this year will be celebrated all around the world for the first time. The group known as“Feminismos 15M”[es] has chosen this date to convene a demonstration, tomorrow, the 28th at 7pm at the Puerta de Toldeo in Madrid. The protest mainly denounces the new Spanish abortion law, proposed by the minister of justice, Alberto Ruiz-Gallardon, as a regression of women's rights. If the law is passed, abortion will no longer be legal and would also be prohibited in abnormal cases and cases of deformed fetuses. This reform is strongly discussed by the feminist movement. The foundation Derecho a Vivir [es] (The Right to Live) supports this law change.

Spain: “Merkel Go Home”

Paula Góes — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 16:50:02 +0000

Poster of the protest, “Merkel go home.”

The Spanish indignant movement has convened a rally tomorrow, September 6, 2012 in front of the European Union headquarters in Madrid due to the meeting between President Mariano Rajoy and the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel under the slogan “Merkel go home.” The intentions of the first social protest of September will be commented on social networks with the denominations: #MerkelLlevateaRajoy y #6S.

UK: Lion Spotted Is Actually Pet Cat Named Teddy Bear

Paula Góes — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 11:59:41 +0000

United Kingdom police officers were busy last weekend with a major operation launched on the evening of Sunday August 26, 2012, following the apparent sighting of a lion in the English county of Essex.

Specialist firearms officers and experts from Colchester Zoo joined 25 officers called to where the animal was seen, using two police helicopters – one with thermal imaging equipment – to try to detect the animal. Essex Police have not released any details of the cost of the search, but the lion turned out to be large Maine Coon domestic cat called ‘Teddy Bear'.

This video uploaded to YouTube on 27 August by DynamoMor provides some ‘eyewitness’ accounts. Another popular image of the ‘lion’ circulated via social media was later revealed to have been faked.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwbaNN3AfsE

Vics, an English girl living in the South of France, summarises the news with inside knowledge:

It seems that a combination of silly season and mass hysteria hit the UK this week after holiday makers in Essex reported seeing a lion in a field next to a camp-site in Clacton-on-Sea, Essex. They took a blurry photo as “proof” and then the whole thing escalated with witnesses claiming to hear ‘loud roaring’ in nearby houses and people running away from the “lion” as he prowled around the camp-site at night. As soon as the British press got wind of the whole thing, they went into high alert and the Essex lion was front page news for most of the day on Monday. I have family who live in Clacton-On-Sea and so took great delight in sending them messages on Facebook warning them to stay inside and avoid loud purring noises in the garden. Photo-shopped pictures were shared on Twitter and Facebook all day and a couple of hilarious fake Twitter accounts were set up with the Essex lion sending out messages about how he was living it up large in Clacton and avoiding the police who were out looking for him.

Twitter account @EssexLion amassed nearly 37,000 followers in less than two days. His first tweet alone was re-tweeted 1,104 times and had over 70 likes:

ROAR BRUV!

“It's been a great week for British humour” says a Welsh blogger based in Italy:

As armed police and helicopters swarmed to the area, did my compatriots go into lockdown mode? No, they carried on much as usual and continued to go “down the pub”. I couldn't help smiling as the landlady of the nearest pub was interviewed, saying she was “a bit worried” but that her customers were still coming. That's the kind of reaction that makes you strangely proud to be British! On this occasion , too, twitter came into its own: ”Essex girl” and her companion “Essex man” are unflattering stereotypes in popular culture [better that you read about them here] so when, within minutes of the “lion” news breaking, a twitter account in the name of “Essex Lion” was opened, the tweeting party went on all night. This puzzled a lot of my Italian twitter friends and I reflected that, had a lion been on the prowl here, everybody would have barricaded themselves in [elegantly, with good food on the stove and packs of cards to pass the time, it must be said]. As the night wore on and Sunday merged into Monday I think someone must have called Moody's because the poor old lion was downgraded, first to a “big dog”, then to a “wildcat” and finally, yesterday, to a domestic cat called “Teddy Bear”. But the British are nothing if not stubborn, as many would-be invaders have found out, and as I write this on Wednesday night, there are still folk in Essex who are convinced they saw a lion despite the fact that the police called off their search yesterday morning.

Mark Borkowski wrote a post called ‘The Essex Lion and the Roar of the Crowd', in which he noticed how the episode highlighted the power of social media:

The search for the elusive big cat provided a never ending stream of comic reports for the 24 minute news cycle. Twitter and other social media channels were awash with jokes surrounding the #EssexLion, lending their weight to this most agreeable meme. [...] Ultimately, whether or not there was an escaped big cat prowling St Osyth is irrelevant. The power of the social driven media age proves that we are more interested in the potential and context of the story, rather than the truth. Especially when we need some enjoyment to help us forget the damp Bank Holiday weekend.

While blog Frivolous Monsters posted the ‘Diary – Essex Lion Hunting Special‘ and Rachel Jones published links to some earlier big cat sightings, Tony Giles wondered ironically how come the Essex Lion got so much coverage. On hearing the news that the Essex Lion was pet cat, Rishi Dastidar claimed a poem was inevitable:

People of Essex, do not be afraid!
The lion is a cat called Teddy Bear.
The big animal threat has begun to fade.
People of Essex, do not be afraid!
OK, we admit our binoculars were mislaid
and you can go about without a care.
The lion is a cat called Teddy Bear.
People of Essex, do not be afraid!

“Nobody does Monty Python-style police stories like the Brits”, says Michael Mountain summarising the search for the lion stalking the eerie grasslands of Essex, complete with photos and videos. To finish off, Vics evokes another British comedy classic, a must watch to understand the British and their their annual summer holiday in caravans:

Perhaps next time the police should heed the advice of everyone's favourite Catholic Priest ‘Father Ted‘ and remember that there is a difference between ‘small’ and ‘far away'!

Global: A Marathon to Translate the Declaration of Internet Freedom

Paula Góes — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 23:29:05 +0000

The world may be glued to the TV to watch the start of the Olympic Games in London, but Global Voices Lingua translators are excited about another challenge: the Internet Freedom Translathon, a marathon to get the Declaration of Internet Freedom translated in as many languages and dialects as possible over the course of 24 hours on Friday August 3. Everyone can join: you don't have to be an Olympic athlete or professional translator to help!

Freedom!: Design by Juan Osborne using the word ‘freedom’ in about fifty languages. Publish under Creative Commons license (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)

Lingua is partnering with New American Foundation and Free Press to provide official versions of the declaration in a number of languages. Since the Declaration was posted on Global Voices Advocacy last weekend, our translators have rendered the text into 20 languages. Global Voices’ content is currently translated into almost 30 languages by our volunteers, a big achievement but a small fraction of the 6,909 known living languages catalogued by Ethnologue.

This means that there is one language for every 862,000 people on Earth: Europe alone accounts for only 234 of them, whereas in Asia 2,322 languages are spoken on a daily basis. We hope to offer the declaration in as many of them as possible, even in artificial languages: from Solresol to Esperanto, there are 200 auxlangs in which the declaration would look great too! And with your help and luck, we can even hope to reach impromptu translators of those 46 languages that have just a single speaker.

The Internet Freedom Translathon is part of the Summer of Internet Freedom, a series of events taking place this August to encourage Internet users to continue the global conversation about the role of the Internet in our lives and how we can keep it free and open. It is also a way to engage with the Declaration and to show public support for Internet freedom. Anyone can host offline or online events, anywhere around the world.

Everyone can join forces in the Internet Freedom Translathon: you can offer your skills to translate or proofread the declaration in your language or dialect. Or, if you don't speak any other languages, you can blog about the Translathon, republish translations, share this post, promote it on your social networks, join our event, or spread the word. Join Lingua in this marathon for freedom, libertà, liberté, libertad, llibertat, liberdade, свобода, özgürlük, szabadság, uhuru, свобода, Ελευθερία, Hettagol, Freiheit, wolność, Yɛrɛmahɔrɔnya, vrijheid, آزادی, স্বাধীনতা, 자유, आज़ादी, 自由, حرية.

Save the date – Internet Freedom Translathon
When: Starting at midnight GMT on Friday, August 3, for 24 hours
Link: http://bit.ly/Translathon (the translation form is closed and will be available just before midnight on August 3, 2012)
Connect: join the Translathon event page at the Summer of Internet Freedom website.
Please promote freely – in any language!

Brazil: Most Violent State in the Country Protests for Peace

Paula Góes — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 12:15:22 +0000

As I write this post, I read a piece of news [pt] about a teenager who was shot dead on the city streets of Maceio, Brazil, on the night of Tuesday May 29, 2012, while at least three other bodies of victims of violence were received at the capital's institute of forensic medicine. Just a few hours before these recent crimes, thousands of people – mobilised through social networks – took the streets in the “Walk for Peace”, an appeal to end violence in the city's coastal state of Alagoas.

For a long time the population of Alagoas has become indignant by the trivialisation of life and the growing number of murders for trivial reasons [pt]. The last straw causing the mobilisation was the assassination of 67-year-old doctor José Alfredo Vasco Tenorio on the afternoon of May 26, following an armed robbery. In the same weekend alone, 17 other people came to violent deaths in Alagoas.

The floor where the doctor was murdered was stained with 'blood' footprints. Photo published in Facebook by Del Valle Allves.

The untenable insecurity of the situation led people to protest on the streets in a demonstration organised through the Facebook group Alagoas – Estado de Emergência (Alagoas – State of Emergency) [pt]. After the protest on Monday evening, Silvana Chamusca [pt] provided a summary of the event, with an overview of the debate that followed the peaceful walk “whose single goal was to show our indignation, without looking at social class”:

Participamos de um primeiro movimento, poderão ser organizados outros, então sugira, tenha iniciativa, levante dados, organize no seu bairro, ou em qualquer outro bairro, que garanto que eu estarei lá.

We took part in the first protests, others may follow, I suggest that you guys have the initiative, look for information, organize [a protest] in your neighbourhood or in any other area, and I guarantee I'll be there.

The group, which was created on Monday, has already over 60,000 members. While a new protest is being organised for June 5, Toninho Cajueiro [pt] asks:

O que foi conseguido de CONCRETO após a caminhada? Quais as providências que serão tomadas após este evento? A verdade é que a grande mobilização que precisamos fazer é na URNA, na ELEIÇÃO deste ANO, escolhendo de forma CORRETA e SEM INTERESSE os nossos políticos. Com educação de qualidade e geração de emprego se muda esse Estado.

Which CONCRETE results were achieved after the walk? What are the next steps after this event? True to say, the greater mobilisation we need to promote is in the BALLOT BOX in this ELECTION YEAR, choosing our politicians CORRECTLY and WITHOUT SELF-INTEREST. We can change this state with quality education and a generation of employment.

While mobilising again, people engaged in a lively debate about the roots of violence, social class conflict, politics and the general feeling of the population. Mauricio Carvalho [pt] believes violence is a very complex issue and should not be treated with a simplistic view:

A morte do Dr. Alfredo serviu de estopim, um símbolo, um mártir, aquele que nós esperamos que tenha sido a última vítima dessa violência desenfreada. Ninguém é cego, todo mundo sabe da situação caótica que Alagoas chegou, a reclamação era unânime. Ninguém é insensível ao ponto de quantificar a importância da morte de uma pessoa independentemente do lugar do planeta que ela resida ou sua classe social.

The death of Dr. Alfredo worked as a trigger, [he is] a symbol, a martyr, the one we hope is the last victim of this unbridled violence. Nobody is blind, everyone knows Alagoas is in chaos, the complaint is unanimous. Nobody is so insensitive to the point of quantifying the importance of the death of a human being on the planet regardless of where they live or their social class.

"It is not enough to speak – you must get out of your home". Artwork published by Fabrício França de Oliveira in the Alagoas, Estado de Emergência group.

Eulália Lima [pt], although living in another state, followed the debate closely, saying it was high time social networks were used “for something indeed useful”:

Que sigamos bem mais longe, pelo simples fato de que o pouco que fizermos já significará um passo enorme para um Estado e um povo tão castigado. Aprender a usar o voto e a importância dele, saber que tem direitos, lutar por eles e deixar o egoísmo e o conformismo para trás, pode transformar o mundo. O ALAGOAS – ESTADO DE EMERGÊNCIA é um exemplo disso. Sair do sofá e interagir pode render gratas recompensas. Estou nessa! Parabéns a todos pelo primeiro passo!

May we go much further, for the simple fact that even a little way we go means a huge step for such a suffering people and state. You can change the world by learning how to vote and the importance of voting, by knowing you have rights, fighting for them and leaving egoism and conformity behind. The ALAGOAS – STATE OF EMERGENCY group is an example of this. Getting off the couch and interacting can yield great rewards. I'm in! Congratulations to all for this first step!

A petition demanding immediate intervention from the Public Ministry [pt] in the state was launched on Tuesday 29, and has already gathered over 2,000 signatures. After adding his name to it, Nilton Resende [pt] asked, “What intervention do we want? What intervention do we need?”:

Os vereadores aumentaram seus salários e nós não pedimos uma intervenção. Nós somos vilipendiados constantemente pela corja de políticos que diz nos representar, e não pedimos intervenção.

Mas, queremos uma intervenção sobre os bandidos – os bandidos pobres, que matam num átimo. Pedimos essa intervenção, sem nos lembrarmos dos bandidos que nos matam lentamente há décadas.

É preciso uma mudança geral. Não adianta uma intervenção apenas repressora sem mudar a base causadora do estado de penúria de nosso Estado. Sem nos tirar da tortura constante a que somos submetidos, como eu disse no post anterior: .

Passeemos por outros estados brasileiros, e veremos as UPA’s – Unidades de Pronto Atendimento. Quais foram construídas em Alagoas? Quais foram construídas em Maceió? E onde está o dinheiro que foi destinado a isso?

Na verdade, precisamos de diversas intervenções.

Local councilors have raised their salaries and we did not ask for intervention. We have been constantly vilified by the gang of politicians who are said to represent us, and we do not ask for intervention.

But we ask for intervention when it is about the bad guys – the criminals in poverty, who kill in an instant. We ask for intervention, without remembering the bad guys who have been killing us slowly for decades.

We need an overall change. There is no use for just a repressive intervention without changing the basic cause of the penury of our State; without taking us away from the constant torture that we are subjected to, as I said in a previous post: Torture: Tortures [pt].

If we go to other Brazilian states, we see Emergency Care Units [a type of medium complexity hospital deployed in several Brazilian cities]. Where are they in Alagoas? Where are they in Maceio? And where is the money that was allocated for that?

In fact, we need different interventions.

Vertiginous growth

Graphic of the 2012 Map of Violence showing the growth rates of homicide in Alagoas in the last 20 years. The red color indicates the national index, pink covers Maceió and metropolitan area, and Alagoas as a whole is shown in yellow.

Crime in Alagoas has shown an accelerated and continued growth, according to the 2012 Map of Violence [pt], published by the Instituto Sangari. In the 1999 report, the state boasted a moderate level of violence, with a rate of 20.3 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants (below the national average of 26.2) and ranking 11th.

In 2010, the rate of 66.8 homicides per 100,000 secured Alagoas the title of the most violent State in the country for the fifth consecutive year. While the average Brazilian rates of violence remain unchanged, Alagoas’ grew 228.3%, more than tripling in the last 10 years.

Despite these calamitous rates, the small state does not make the headlines in the country's mainstream media. Thallysson Alves [pt] demands the due attention:

Pessoal, já que a imprensa nacional não vem a nós, vamos a ela. Enviem links que relatam a mobilização para os sites, jornais, TVs, revistas e rádios de fora do nosso Estado. Quem conhecer jornalistas de fora, adicionem ao grupo, informe. Vamos pressionar de todos os lados para que, enfim, sejamos ouvidos.

Guys, as the country's mainstream media vehicles don't come here, let's go after them. Send links about the mobilisation to websites, newspapers, TVs, magazines and radios outside our state. If you know journalists, please add them to this group, inform them. Let's make pressure on all sides so that we are heard at last.

The people of Alagoas are tired and want peace. Kika Chroniaris [pt] suggests a way to show this:

Coloquem fita branca em seu carro e uma faixa na fachada de seu estabelecimento ou casa. Seja em qualquer lugar da cidade, precisamos mostrar que a cidade toda clama por PAZ.

Tie a white ribbon in your car and put a banner in front of your store or home. In all places of the city, we need to show that the whole town cries out for PEACE.

Alagoas cries out for peace. Photo published by Marilene da Silva in the Facebook group.

Brazil: ‘Hands That Cure, Words That Heal’

Paula Góes — Tue, 15 May 2012 14:13:13 +0000

[All links lead to Portuguese language pages except when otherwise noted]

With their herbs, gestures, prayers and comforting words, the “doctors of the people” are an important element of Brazilian popular culture and religious syncretism. Folk healers are found throughout the country, but play a special role in remote areas, where medical professionals are scarce and allopathic medicine is inaccessible.

In a post called ‘Hands that cure, words that heal', Ricardo Câmara recalls the history of faith healing and highlights the work of benzedeiras (women who pray for and bless the ill), usually a free and voluntary activity that has spread throughout Brazil as an alternative to traditional medicine since the sixteenth century:

Terço e folhas nas mãos, oração na ponta da língua e muita fé em Deus. As benzedeiras e benzedores que surgiram no Brasil com a chegada dos Jesuítas, no século XVI, são figuras presentes na cultura popular até os dias de hoje.
A benzeção, como várias outras práticas religiosas e médicas populares, aflorou-se com intensidade no período Colonial Brasileiro e os fatores que propiciaram o desenvolvimento da prática da benzeção, com certeza, remetem à precariedade da vida material, destacada pela raridade de médicos, de cirurgiões, de produtos farmacêuticos, e ao sincretismo dos povos em geral, que também contribuíram, e muito, para que a prática da benzeção se propagasse ainda mais.

Rosaries and leaves at hand, prayers on the lips and much faith in God. Folk healers, who emerged in Brazil with the arrival of the Jesuits in the sixteenth century, are present in popular culture up to now.
Blessing, like many other popular religious and medical practices, surfaced with intensity in the Brazilian colonial period and the factors leading to the development of the practice refer, of course, to the precariousness of material life, highlighted by the scarcity of doctors, surgeons, pharmaceutical products, and by the syncretism of the population in general, which in turn contributed to spread the practice of blessing even further.

Blessing woman Dona Izabel. Photo by Fredox Carvalho, for Agência de Notícias Cavaleiro de Jorge (used with permission).

The training of folk healers, individuals who according to Maria Luiza Benitez are usually “predestined and born with a special gift of power, talent or knowledge”, requires great dedication:

O estudo do curandeiro difere grandemente dos estudos e práticas da medicina convencional. Não há livros de medicina, nem notas de aprovação. Mas é preciso vencer todos os testes e provações. E é exclusivamente por meio da dor, do sofrimento, da doença e da própria morte que o curador adquire acesso ao universo das realidades extraordinárias. O mundo do além é o terreno onde se pode obter o conhecimento, a experiência, as qualificações e o poder para auxiliar os demais.
O chamado costuma vir em sonhos ou por intermédio de um acidente, doença, injúria sofrida, ameaça de morte eminente, da morte e mesmo morte clínica temporária.

Studying to become a healer differs greatly from the study and practice of conventional medicine. There are no medical books or passing grades, but you have to overcome all tests and trials. Additionally, it is only through pain, suffering, disease, and death itself that the healer gets access to the world of extraordinary realities. The world beyond is the land where you can obtain the knowledge, experience, skills and power to help others.
The call usually comes in dreams or through an accident, illness, injury, suffering, threat of imminent death, even death itself, and temporary clinical death.

Shaman in a Pataxó indigenous tribe in Bahia. Photo by Flickr user Mario Niveo (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Teacher Glauco Ricciele Ribeiro reveals how women become folk healers:

Benzedeiras senhoras de coração puro, servem ao próximo sem interesses ou cobiça. O dom adquirido por elas são passados de geração a geração. Mas em nosso mundo atual, tal prática cada vez mais desaparece e junto dela a fé popular perde suas características. [...]
Mas poucos sabem como uma benzedeira inicia seu “sacerdócio”. Tradicionalmente a Sexta-feira Santa é a única data onde se ordena o Dom de ser Benzedeira a uma mulher de bom coração e sem impedimentos. Esta pessoal deve ajudar através das rezas todo tipo de necessitado sem distinção de classe ou credo.

Folk healers are women with pure hearts, who serve others without self-interest or greed. The gift they acquire is passed from generation to generation. But in our world today, such practices are increasingly disappearing and, together with them, the popular faith loses its characteristics. [...]
But few people know how a healer began her “ministry”. Traditionally, Good Friday is the only day in which the gift of healing is given to a woman of good heart and without hindrances. Through all kinds of prayers, she ought to help people in need without distinction of class or creed.

The Blessing Culture. Photo from the Etnia Brasil website by Livia Zaruty (CC BY-NC-ND).

Journalism student Angélica Weise disagrees that the art of healing is disappearing:

Elas fazem parte da cultura popular. A maioria é de uma generosidade incrível. Por mais antiga que seja a tradição, as benzedeiras se encontram mais vivas do que nunca. Basta ter vocação e força de vontade. Mesmo com a medicina avançada, muitas pessoas recorrem a elas para os diversos tipos de cura. [...]
Para encontrá-las não há endereço. Basta perguntar nas ruas que logo alguém conhece ou já ouviu falar delas. Na maioria são velhas e simples. É olhando para o rosto e contando suas rugas que encontramos a idade delas. Quem acredita em benzedeira, jura que elas fazem milagres.

They are part of popular culture. Most are incredible generous. No matter how old the tradition is, folk healers are more alive than ever. It only takes calling and will. Even with the advancement of medicine, many people turn to folk healers for various types of healing. [...]
To find them, you need not to have an address. Just ask in the streets and you will find someone who knows or has heard of them. Most are elderly and humble. It is looking at their faces and counting their wrinkles that we find out their age. Those who believe in spiritual healing, swear that they promote miracle cures.

Conventional doctors are not so convinced of the miraculous power of spiritual healing and are concerned about the practice, considering that “the scientific safety should not be set aside”.

Meanwhile, traditional healers of two cities in the Brazilian state of Paraná, Rebouças and São João do Triunfo, have seen their activity recently recognized by pioneering municipal laws in Brazil. This resulted in a project of Social Mapping of Folk Healers, whose unprecedented legislation was celebrated as a victory by the local network of traditional communities and peoples:

Num processo de continua luta e organização social das benzedeiras articuladas no Movimento Aprendizes da Sabedoria (MASA) em 22/02/2012 o Presidente da Câmara Municipal de São João do Triunfo promulgou a lei municipal nº 1.370/11, a qual reconhece a identidade coletiva das benzedeiras de Triunfo, regulariza o livre acesso as plantas medicinais por parte dos detentores de ofícios tradicionais de cura e propõe a construção de política municipal especifica de acolhimento das práticas tradicionais de cura nos sistema formal de saúde.

After a process of continuous struggle and social organization of folk healers from the Learners of Wisdom Movement (MASA), the president of São João do Triunfo's City Council passed City Ordinance No. 1,370/11 on on February 22, 2012, a law which recognises the collective identity of the folk healers of Triunfo, regulates free access to medicinal plants by the holders of traditional healing craft, and proposes the elaboration of municipal policy specifically to bring traditional healing practices in the formal health system.

City ordinance recognises the work of folk healers of Triunfo. Photo by Rede Puxirão de Povos e Comunidades Tradicionais published by Flickr user Cultura Viva (CC BY-SA 2.0).

Regardless of whether the cures are a reality or the result of a placebo effect, the act of healing through non-traditional means is considered an intangible heritage of Brazilian culture by the National Institute of Historic and Artistic Heritage (IPHAN) [en], which belongs to the federal government of Brazil as part of the Ministry of Culture.

In addition to bringing spiritual comfort, folk healers inspire artists, like the writer Sinval Santos da Silveira, who tells us the story and secret of a woman who lived in a very humble house, with no electricity or running water:

Mulher de idade avançada, magrinha, mal alimentada,
e de um coração cheio de bondade…
Sobre uma pequena mesa, a imagem da Santa, em
quem deposita sua fé e a sua vida.
Benze, em nome da Santinha, curando torcicolo, arca
caida, dor de dente, dor nas costas, dor de olhos, de
garganta, de cabeça, mal olhado, inveja, etc.
Seus pacientes ou clientes, pelo trabalho milagroso,
nada pagam, nada devem.
O prazer de poder ajudar alguém, que lhe procura,
está acima de qualquer outro valor.
Só agora entendo, que o poder de cura daquela mulher,
sempre residiu numa única coisa, que tinha em excesso,
em sua humilde casinha: muito amor…

Elderly, skinny, malnourished woman,
whose heart was full of goodness…
On a small table, there is an image of the Saint in
whose care she places her faith and life.
She blesses, on behalf of the sweet Saint, healing stiff neck,
lumbago, toothache, backache, sore eyes and throat,
headache, evil eye, envy, so on.
Her patients or clients pay nothing, nothing owed
for the miraculous work.
The pleasure of helping someone who looks for her
is valuable above anything else.
Only now I understand that the healing power of that woman
was always based on the only one thing that her humble house
had in excess: lots of love…

Spain: Faces of the victims of the economic crisis

Paula Góes — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 11:23:54 +0000

The Els nous pobres [The New Poor, ca] blog collects testimonies of poor people affected by the crisis which has greatly limited their economic and personal opportunities. According to the authors, the intention is “to give faces, names and surnames to social injustice we have been living in while our public representatives have been sharing shameful wages, favors, subsidies and privileges of all kinds.”

“Teaching through humiliation: tough love or cruelty?”

Paula Góes — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 12:13:28 +0000

Rose Kahendi ponders on the role of radio hosts who have public platforms reaching hundreds of thousands of listeners. “Their profession brings with it great responsibility. More so if they take it upon themselves to inform or educate their fans on matters that fall outside their immediate purview. Belittling their fans for lacking sophistication in professional etiquette is unprofessional. It is also a wasted opportunity to make a meaningful difference.”