Shark Attacks Threaten Recife's Beaches

An article from BBC describes problems with an increasing number of shark attacks on Brazil's northeast coast, specifically in the area around Recife.  

According to the article, the increase in shark attacks is believe to be caused by several factors.  One factor is the construction of Port Suape, which disrupted the environment and interfered with the sharks' normal breeding and hunting patterns.  

Another factor is sewage resulting from increased ship traffic in the area.  Sharks are attracted to this sewage, which brings them closer to the coastal area, where they are more likely to encounter swimmers. 

Authorities from Port Suape deny that the port is the cause of the attacks, and claim that there are no studies to support the allegations.

Meanwhile, a group called Committee for Monitoring Sharks Incidents (Cemit), is promoting public education about shark attacks, as well as conducting a catch-and-release program aimed at moving the sharks away from the crowded beaches.   

In UN Speech, Dilma Criticizes Rich Countries

In a speech she delivered at the United Nations on September 25, 2012, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff criticized the economic policies of the United States and other wealthy nations.  

Specifically, Dilma said that extreme austerity measures in the US and Europe, along with the devaluing of their currency by printing too much money, are having harmful effects on the economies of developing countries such as Brazil.

She strongly defended Brazil's recent tariff hikes as a "legitimate trade defense," and rejected the notion that such hikes constituted protectionism.  Her comments came less than a week after a sharp exchange between US Trade Representative Ron Kirk and Brazil's Foreign Minister Antonio de Aguiar Patriota over these same tariffs.  

Kirk had warned Patriota that the Brazilian tariff increases could result in retaliation from Brazil's trade partners. Patriota responded that the tariff hikes were necessary because US monetary policies had unleashed "a flood of imported goods at artificially low prices" in Brazil.

During her speech, Dilma went on to say: "We know from our own experience that the sovereign debt of states as well as the bank and financial debt will not be dealt with in the framework of a recession. On the contrary, recession only makes these problems more acute." She said that the choice between austerity and growth is a "false dilemma." 

This echoes an argument made by some US economists and politicians, who point out that austerity measures in certain European countries have failed to improve their economies, and may have made the situation worse. Dilma's statement also highlights a fundamental difference between conservatives and liberals, with conservatives generally favoring a market solution to the economic crisis, and liberals supporting a more active role of government in solving the problem.  

Brazil's economic growth has slowed down significantly in the past year, and Dilma's government is attempting to confront the problem. 

Update: For a longer, more detailed synopsis of Dilma's remarks, including direct quotations (translated into English), check out the UN News Centre article here.  There's also a video of her entire speech on the same page, but unfortunately, it only includes audio of the English translator.  

Update 2: The video of Dilma's entire speech, in Portuguese without the translator, is now available:

Sources:  Brazil Portal, Reuters UK

More Brazil Travel Tips from the NYTimes "Frugal Traveler"

In a post from last week, I summarized some of the tips that the NYTimes "Frugal Traveler" had included in a post about Brazil.  He published more tips in a post last Friday, this time from three Brazil-based experts.

Here's a partial list:

Avoid traveling to Brazil during the busiest seasons for domestic travel:  school holidays in January and June, Carnival, and national holidays that turn into long weekends.

Wait for January 10, which the author cites as the "magic date that the Brazilian summer stops being so expensive."   

Visit Rio in the Fall, after Easter (remember, seasons in the Southern Hemisphere are the opposite of seasons in the Northern Hemisphere).  
Use the bus to travel between cities.

Fly on Panama's Copa airline for convenience and decent rates.

Save money by eating small, traditional dishes.

Avoid renting a car if possible.

Try visiting Brasília, where hotels offer reasonable weekend rates, bus travel is efficient, and most main attractions are free.

Buy food "por kilo," and in a restaurant, split an entree with one or two travel companions to save money.

Use airport shuttles instead of taxis to get from the airport to the city center.

BBC Article Highlights Dilma

In an article posted today, the BBC presents an overview of Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff.  After giving a brief description of her political career prior to assuming office, the author focuses on her two years as president.

What emerges is a portrait of a leader who is a highly capable administrator, described as "tough," "firm," and "impatient."  Her agriculture minister recounts a story about a meeting in which several people were debating ways to confront the drought that has faced Brazilian farmers.  After listening for a while, Dilma announced that the group had one hour to solve the problem, and then she left the room.  While she extended her deadline, she made it clear that they were expected to find a solution, no matter what.

In spite of Dilma's extremely high approval ratings (59% at the time the article was written), some see her as less politically astute than her predecessors.  The article cites several problems: her "tense" relations with Congress, in spite of the fact that her ruling coalition has solid control; a rash of scandals that required the dismissal of six of her ministers; and her support of the construction of hydro-electric dams in the Amazon rainforest, opposed by environmentalists.  

The author also discusses the slowdown in the growth of Brazil's GDP as another challenge that faces Dilma. But he explains that the country's unemployment rate remains low, at just under 6%, which no doubt explains her continued popularity.

From NYTimes "Frugal Traveler": 7 Tips To Save On Your Trip To Brazil

Seth Kugel, writing in the NYTimes blog "Frugal Traveler," published a post today called "For a Brazilian Vacation, 7 Rules to Save By."

Once you get past the sticker shock of the cost of a round-trip flight to Brazil (around $1,000...I mean, I knew that flights were not cheap, but $1,000??), the author offers some good ideas about how to keep your other costs down. Even if you follow the author's advice about booking a cheaper flight, the best he could do was around $900, but every dollar or real counts.

Other ideas include not traveling to Rio during Carnival, New Year's, or other busy times, and finding lodging away from high-priced areas like Ipanema or Copacabana. After a limited stay in Rio (too expensive to spend your entire vacation there) the author recommends traveling elsewhere. He rules out an Amazon adventure ("Too far, too pricey, too complicated") and instead, recommends exploring the state of Minas Gerais.  

He offers suggestions on how to keep your restaurant costs under control, basically by not eating at restaurants, but instead buying your food by the kilo, or from a "lanchonete" or a juice stand.  For lodging, he suggests searching out a good pousada.

He recommends learning some Portuguese, warning tourists that "Your Spanish might help, but not as much as you think."

My favorite line was this one: "Rio, São Paulo and the other big cities are not nearly as dangerous as you might think from watching Brazilian movies like … well, like just about all of them." So it wasn't just my imagination that a lot of Brazilian movies deal with crime and violence.

Be sure to read the entire post if you're planning on traveling to Brazil. The author promises more tips in an upcoming post, too, so stay tuned.

Brazilian Professor: Brazil's Policy Toward "Arab Spring" A Failure

Al Jazeera has published an English translation of an opinion piece that originally appeared in Portuguese in Folha de S. Paulo. 

The op-ed, entitled "Primavera Árabe e inverno no Itamaraty" (Arab Spring: Winter at Brazil's foreign ministry) was written by Marcelo Coutinho. He is a professor of international relations at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. The article appeared in the August 26, 2012 issue of Folha.  

Professor Coutinho argues that Brazil's foreign ministry made mistake after mistake in the way it dealt with the Arab Spring.  He begins by writing: "Our diplomats were unable to handle the situation, did not support democratic movements, and lost the ground it gained over decades in the Middle East."

Specifically, he criticizes Brazil for siding with dictators, being hesitant in dealing with events in Tunisia and Egypt, opposing UN involvement in Libya, and advocating what he calls a failed policy of non-intervention. He believes that this pattern of poor decisions during an unprecedented time of rapid change in the Middle East has tarnished Brazil's reputation as an advocate for democracy and has dealt a severe blow to its credibility in the area.

He closes with this observation: "The foreign ministry of Brazil stumbled badly. In a hundred years, the history books will speak of events that changed a core part of the world. Brazil will appear in a footnote on the wrong side of these transformations."

Source: "Brazil Portal"

Meet the 2014 World Cup Mascot

The "tatu-bola," a species of armadillo

Meet the official mascot for the 2014 World Cup. He's a "tatu-bola," an armadillo found in Brazil and several other South American countries.

He hasn't been named yet; according to an item in "Veja," his name will be chosen by online voting.

Another article gives a little more information.   

Source: "Street Smart Brazil"