Letter from Brazil - Stories by Mario Osava / IPS Inter Press Service

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Sunday, November 08, 2009 00:42 GMT

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Sorting Garbage - Green and Dignified Work
By Mario Osava
RIO DE JANEIRO - More than 1,500 representatives of waste recyclers from 13 countries, and thousands of other visitors, including the host country Brazil's left-wing President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, met last week in São Paulo, demonstrating that they are no longer pariahs in our throw-away society.
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Chinese Competition Undermines Integration
By Mario Osava
RIO DE JANEIRO - Brazil's products are losing ground in the rest of South America, mainly because of the flood of low-cost Chinese goods – a trend that is also exacerbating the region's dependence on commodity exports.
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Poor Response to Global Call Against Poverty
By Mario Osava*
RIO DE JANEIRO - The creative approach of using football matches, student gatherings, shows or events indirectly related to the issue of poverty enabled Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP) activists to reach a wide variety of audiences in Latin America with their message.
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Gov't Engages Three Million Far-Flung Citizens
By Mario Osava
RIO DE JANEIRO - Brazil, a major source of migrants since the 1980s, is now working at recognising and supporting the rights of the three million Brazilians who are scattered among over 100 countries.
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Olympics in Rio – 'Happiness' Trumps Wealth and Technology
By Mario Osava *
RIO DE JANEIRO - Brazil has "the happiest and most creative" people in the world, and deserved this opportunity, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said in Copenhagen, celebrating Friday's election of Rio de Janeiro as the host of the 2016 Olympic Games.
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The Long Shadow of the Dictatorship
By Mario Osava
RIO DE JANEIRO - Those who died and "disappeared" during the 1964-1985 military dictatorship in Brazil represent a mere "one percent of the agenda" of the Special Secretariat for Human Rights (SEDH), but captivate "99 percent of the attention of the press," complained Human Rights Secretary Paulo Vannuchi.
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Brazil Ups the Ante
By Mario Osava
RIO DE JANEIRO - Brazil's claim to a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council could be strengthened if its decision to provide protection for ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya in its embassy turns out well, or it could see complications arise as the result of a new reputation for carrying out Hugo Chávez-style "bold actions."
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Electric Car Revolution in the Making
By Mario Osava*
RIO DE JANEIRO - The electric vehicle - pure or hybrid - will trigger an energy and industrial revolution worldwide in the coming decades, dealing a blow to liquid fuels. But plant-based ethanol will survive and grow, say Brazilian experts consulted for this report.
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Art is the Best Education
Analysis by Mario Osava *
RIO DE JANEIRO - A broad range of projects in Brazil are using ballet and folk dances, classical and popular music, theatre, circus arts, capoeira - an Afro-Brazilian combination of dance and martial arts - fashion, visual arts and the audiovisual media to reach disadvantaged and at-risk children.
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Public Schools Fend Off Invasion of New Ideas
By Mario Osava
ARAÇUAI, Brazil - Two non-governmental initiatives managed to penetrate the walls around public education in Brazil, temporarily assuming responsibility for the administration of schools where they left their seeds planted. But ultimately they discovered how resistant the school system is to innovation.
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Branching Out in Alliances as Emerging Global Actor
By Mario Osava
RIO DE JANEIRO - Brazil and France have "similar interests in the area of global geopolitics" and Brazil shares "affinities in terms of circumstances and values" with India and South Africa, Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim said Friday, explaining his country's growing "extra-regional" alliances.
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Artistic Energy as Antidote to Exclusion
By Mario Osava
SALVADOR, Brazil - Putting the power of art to the test in extreme situations has become an unintended but necessary task for the Axé Project, a Brazilian non-governmental organisation (NGO) aimed at creating the conditions for street kids and other at-risk children to overcome educational, family and community exclusion.
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From Learning Circle to Flights of Artistic Imagination
By Mario Osava
ARAÇUAÍ, Brazil - Slender, small and long-haired, 11-year-old Higor Fonseca sounds much older when he talks. He has a great deal to tell, in spite of living in this small, sleepy town in the interior of Brazil, where most workers are employed as seasonal migrant labourers in other parts of the country.
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Mario Osava, IPS's Brazil correspondent, covers political, economic and social issues, including human rights, labour, environment, poverty, indigenous issues, and sustainable development. He has travelled the corners of Latin America's largest country to bring you these stories.