· April, 2008

Stories about Portuguese from April, 2008

Brazil: Homicide counter on the streets

  30 April 2008

Recife is the first city in Brazil and in the world to have a homicide counter installed on the streets. Since January 1st only, there have been 1,511 deaths in the city, 11 of them today. “Now, the public can monitor our blog's data not only on the Internet but...

Brazil: WordPress attorney blogs about the blocking

  30 April 2008

Marcel Leonardi [pt], the Brazilian attorney who is representing WordPress in the case of a possible ban on the platform in the country, blogs: “In the motion filled by the Automattic Inc. [on Monday], among other pieces of information, it has been highlighted the tremendous damage that the blanket ban...

Brazil: Orkut vs Facebook

  30 April 2008

Raquel Recuero [pt] has a long post explaining why Brazilians love Orkut so much that they have paid no attention whatsoever to facebook – at least so far.

Mozambique: On unemployment and the government responsibility

  30 April 2008

Basilio Muhate [pt] expatiates on the high unemployment rates in Mozambique and the role government play in it. “Bureaucracy also causes many problems in the labor market, mainly because of decisions that are not consistent with reality and real economy, where public spending (government spending) is often determined by political...

East Timor: On the shortage of rice

  27 April 2008

Ângela Carrascalão [pt] describes how rice entered East Timor via Indonesia, substituting native corn, and the problem the country now faces in times of food shortage: “When it was no longer part of the current diet of the East Timorese people, the population almost ceased to grow corn, and the...

Angola: The voting weapon

  27 April 2008

Cazimar [pt] echoes the news that the Chinese An Yue Jiang ship was allowed to dock in Luanda only to unload merchandise destined for Angola. The blogger asks Angolan president José Eduardo dos Santos why he wants weaponry and call people to react: “Be careful with this delivery of weapons....

Brazil: Blog gives away tickets to attend to PangeaDay

  27 April 2008

Victor Vasques [pt] is giving away five pairs of tickets to the PangeaDay event in Rio de Janeiro to readers of Com Limão (With Lemon) blog. Contestants only need to send a video or catchphrase about “I want to attend to Pangea Day” via email and the five best chosen...

Lusosphera: Remembering the Carnation Revolution

  25 April 2008

On April 25 1974, 34 years today, Portugal's 40-year fascist dictatorship, the longest in the history of Western Europe, came to an end with the Carnation Revolution, which also brought independence for the remaining colonies in Africa and Asia. Today Portuguese speaking bloggers from all over the world comment and celebrate.

Angola: Remember April 25

  25 April 2008

Many Angolan blogs, such as Kitanda [pt], bring today videos, articles and posts about the anniversary of the 1974 Carnation Revolution, the military-led coup d'état that changed the Portuguese regime from an authoritarian dictatorship to a democracy and brought independence to overseas territories.

Brazil: Against the slave farms

  25 April 2008

Luiz Carlos Azenha, from Vi o Mundo [“I saw the world”, in Portuguese], blogs for the approval of the Congress Bill that changes the Brazilian Constitution to allow for the confiscation of private rural lands where the use of slave work is discovered. Azenha says “It's necessary to confiscate the...

Brasil: Alternative (poetic) justice

  25 April 2008

Hernani Dimantas, from comunix.org [Pt], cheers [Pt] the decision made by a criminal judge in southern Brazil, to exchange the normal penalty to be applied on 3 young Brazilians, accused of commiting internet crimes, by a curious alternative penance: read and review 2 classical Brazilian literature works each trimester. Hernani...

Brazil: Making a child murder into a media show

  24 April 2008

A child dies under mysterious circumstances. Her father and stepmother are the prime suspects chosen by the media and general public since the beginning, but the official investigations are still under way. Is it fair to lead 160 million people to believe someone is guilty of killing his own daughter before the final official pronunciation on the matter? What is around, and behind, the full time reality-show coverage made by the Brazilian media in cases like this? The Brazilian blogosphere talks.

Brazil: Improving the police by the inside

  24 April 2008

The Blog da Segurança Pública [“Public Security Blog”, in Portuguese], from Brasília, lists 10 possible and affordable improvements[Pt] that would make Brasília policemen's lives better, thus improving their performance at their work too. The blog reports successful experiences made by the police of other Brazilian states.

Brazil: On the food crises

  23 April 2008

Matheus Pacini makes available in Portuguese [pt] a translation of The silent tsunami, from The Economist, to support his post about the food crisis.

New Oil in Brazil Unleashes a Gusher of Media Controversies

  21 April 2008

Twisted information about the discovery of what may possibly be the third largest oil field in the world turned into a hot issue on the Brazilian blogosphere this week. The trigger was a comment from the head of Brazil's National Petroleum Agency [ANP], Haroldo Lima, mentioning that the recently found Carioca [or Sugar Loaf] field in Brazil’s offshore Santos Basin could potentially contain reserves of up to 33 billion barrels of oil and gas.

Brazil: Debating race

  19 April 2008

Alex Castro [pt] is generating an interesting debate in his series of posts about race, a matter that he considers of utmost importance in Brazil. “Each human being is, above all, who they think they are and who they are perceived as being.”

Angola: A glossary of Angolan terms

  18 April 2008

Casa de Luanda [Luanda House, pt] has been compiling a glossary of Angolan expressions. “Check out the A to D, E to L and M to Z. sections. As soon as new suggestions from our readers come up, the list will be updated”.

Brazil, USA: Sex, Crime and the Vatican

  18 April 2008

Antônio Mello, from blogdomello[Pt], blogs about “Sex, Crime and the Vatican” — a BBC documentary (parts 1, 2, 3 and 4)[En, subtitles in Pt] about children sexual abuse by catholic priests and the shelter provided by the Vatican to the accused ecclesiastics — and a Vatican internal document named Crimen...

Angola: On freedom of expression and globalisation

  17 April 2008

Kianda [pt] thinks that “the fact that someone was born in one country should not revoke their right to think, criticize, vote or even run for elections [in another country]… we are in the globalisation era, in a world with fewer and fewer boundaries and we should all have the...

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Manuel Ribeiro
Manuel Ribeiro is the Portuguese editor. Email him story ideas or volunteer to write here.