Changes in Latitude » Brasil

Brazil Rediscovered!

Mango Steve — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 22:08:23 +0000

Brazil’s best ambassador may be Paulo Coehlo, author of The Alchemist, Manual of the Warrior of Light, The Flowing River, and the most translated novel in the world. Does anyone know which title that would be? This beloved Brazilian said, “Everything that happens once can never happen again. But everything that happens twice will surely happen a third time”.

This seems especially true as we plan a reunion tour for a journey across Brazil, at the request of clients who met on our last excursion. What is so fascinating about Brazil that always takes us back?

First of all, Brazilians are among the warmest people on earth.
Brazil’s economy is 2^nd only to the USA’s in our hemisphere.
Cultural Contributions: Bossa Nova, Samba, Carnival.
The diversity of her nature is unrivaled.
Portuguese, the language of love.

And that is the short list!

So where does a journey in Brazil begin? In Rio de Janeiro, of course. Rio is only half the size of Brazil’s biggest city. Why not stay in her sexiest neighborhood, Santa Teresa? Then, get in the spirit of Que saudade! … by visiting Rua Montenegro, where Antonio Carlos Jobim first saw the Girl from Ipanema and penned the classic song of longing. Que saudade! describes intense longing.

Pele has as many fans as Paulo Coehlo. The world’s foremost soccer hero is from Minas Gerais, our 2^nd destination, Brazil’s heartland, home of historic coffee plantations, mining villages, and romantic hideaways far from the beaches. Here we visit the charming villages of Olimpio Noronha, Tiradentes, and Ouro Preto.

Nobody returns from Brazil without a bit of a tan, so our final journey is to beaches that are the favorites of Brazilians, found on the island of Floripa. Here we enjoy carefree sun-soaked days walking beaches with stunning beauty, far from the chaos of Brazil’s major cities. This island embodies the spirit of Brazil, a perfect complement to its dynamic economy, a diverse culture united in warmth, sincerity, simpático.

Trans-South American Highway

Mango Steve — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 01:10:27 +0000

Consider Seattle, once a Puget Sound paradise, now a concrete jungle subdivided by highways bathing once-pure air in smog seven days/week, pumping poisons into the lungs of everything that breathes. Cement trucks pouring new parking lots daily. What interstate freeways did for Seattle, they could do for Glacier National Monument, the Amazon and the Andes.

Just such a freeway is being built from Brazil to Peru, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, across ravines filled by waterfalls and over gorges fed by the Andes Mountains, the source of the mighty Amazon River. This freeway could be completed in 2010, giving birth to numerous other highways feeding off the mother road, increased illegal logging, burning, and poaching. Why pave the last great undivided rainforest?

Such a highway creates new horizons for Brazil’s continued growth, bypasses the Panama Canal, and opens up new oil and gas fields. The road has been called “The Road to China”. Never mind that sea freight through the Panama Canal costs one-quarter the amount that land shipments will cost. Never mind that this road spells doom for places like the Manu and Pacaya-Samiria National Parks, places where the biodiversity will be remembered as staggering.

This is where the automobile has brought us. Corporations have no shame as they colonize nature and pump poison into the atmosphere. Diesel trucks will soon harvest once-protected tropical hardwoods in order to line North American closets. The highway is to be a private toll road, operated by a those with friends in high places, those willing to pimp their grandchildren’s legacy for today’s luxuries.

Our planet’s last un-colonized indigenous peoples will be displaced by this highway. They will no longer be able to live in voluntary isolation from the material culture of consumerism. Cultural, ecological and environmental factors were not evaluated prior to the granting of this no-bid contract to pave yet another paradise. Former U.S. Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt recommends countermeasures to offset the devastation of the Trans-South American Highway; namely, cooperation to create international conservation areas such as Amistad on the Costa Rican/Panamanian border.

Unfortunately, this solution will be “too little, too late” once the first toll booth opens in Peru near the headwaters of the Amazon. Visit Northeastern Peru soon in order to know the immensity of what will soon be lost at the hands of the “Initiative of the Regional Infrastructure of South America” (IIRSA – an organization content to bypass democratic processes involving citizens). Visit very soon.

Message from the Heart of the World

Mango Steve — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 16:41:00 +0000

Recent reports detail how Latin America is taking a leadership role on climate change. New data from the Word Bank quantifies this region’s leadership in reducing the level of greenhouse gases pumped into the atmosphere. Latin America’s efforts go beyond many government’s efforts, including most G-7 nations; and, notably, the world’s two largest emerging economies.

Carbon dioxide emissions in Latin America are 74% lower, per unit of power, than China & India’s emissions. Why? Hydroelectric power and bio fuel usage are two areas where Latin America has pioneered advantages. It is with enlightened self-interest that countries like Brazil and Mexico tackle environmental challenges. Brazil’s Amazon Basin and Mexico’s Gulf Coast are critical habitats threatened by global warming.

Such habitats are critical because their disappearance would trigger greater global warming. Already the conversion of Amazon rainforest habitat to farms represents 50% of Brazil’s total emissions. The world average for emissions from deforestation is 17%. New World Bank data predicts crop failures caused by global warming will cut farm revenue in half as soon as the year 2100.

Two other critical habitats in Latin America are the glaciers in Patagonia and the barrier reefs along C. America’s Caribbean coast. In Belize, the rising ocean temperature is causing coral in the world’s second largest reef system to emit algae that threaten the coral that produce them. Honduras is experiencing similar degradation off the coast of the Bay Islands.

The world’s most powerful economies are being invited by Latin American nations to lead developing economies on issues related to climate change. For now, Latin America is providing much needed leadership by way of example.

Climate change warnings have been coming from Latin America for decades. . The Kogi sounded this alarm in 1990, long before Al Gore redefined the problem. Columbia’s Kogi civilization has avoided contact with industrialized society (much like the Amish). A typical Kogi village appears in the photo above. Like the Amish, the Kogi seek balance with nature.

The Kogi view themselves as “elder brothers” to modern man, having descended from the Tairona civilization which dates back to the 1st Century. They existed and thrived long before their lands were decimated by “younger brothers” of colonizing civilizations arriving in the region more than 1,000 years later. The Kogi see themselves as custodians of our planet and meditate on its future. They see climate change because their mountain is dying. Their mountain lies in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta near Columbia’s border with Venezuela, the highest coastal mountain in the world.

The Kogi do not see us as sleeping (as some Hindu and Oriental religions do); they see their little brothers as dead or dying, as “shadows of the energy of what they could be”, according to Drunvalo Melchizedek. This is because the Kogi have witnessed the destruction of mother Earth caused by industrialized cultures. The Kogi invited NPR to broadcast their message which translates as “Younger brother, you are killing our mother”.

The Bush Administration ignored the climate change alarm, while Latin American governments continued to take and recommend actions that will heal the ecology that sustain us. To learn more, see the BBC film “Message from the Heart of the World” by making a donation to the Tairona Heritage Trust. Also, read the book “The Heart of the World” for the story told by The Kogi Mamas (priests) to Alan Ereira.

Brazil & Mexico Emerging on Global Issues of Climate & Economic Growth

Mango Steve — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 16:13:00 +0000

The President of Brazil recently proposed a framework for establishing new global financial systems in the face of global failures by the G-7 industrialized nations. He presented this proposal at last month’s G-20 summit. President Lula wants to see the G-7 expanded to include Brazil, the world’s 10th largest economy, along with Mexico and other developing nations.

Brazil is also requesting greater say with the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. “Brazilians view the current economic crisis as an opportunity” according to Brazil expert Jeffery Carson. They want to see Brazil “in a leadership position on behalf of poor countries. Brazil has a strong fiscal standing with $200 billion in foreign reserves to address the global meltdown.

After towing the line with IMF guidelines for decades, many Latin American economies are at least as solid as the USA’s nose diving economy. In addition to fiscal strength, Latin American countries are important producers feeding much of world demand for food and fuel.

Brazil is the world’s #1 exporter of orange juice, bio fuels, poultry, beef and coffee. It produces more iron ore than the USA and is fast approaching our levels of grain exports. Mexico is the fruit and vegetable basket of the USA. Venezuela is the world’s #5 oil exporter with a proposal to create an alternative to the World Bank.

Brazil also wants more influence within the United Nations. President Lula is quick to point out that it has one of the world’s largest stable democracies.

Mexico has recently taken a global warming leadership role with a plan to cut greenhouse gas emission levels in half by 2050, making it the only developing country to set emissions caps below existing levels. The plan is intended as a wakeup call to the G-7 and includes emissions limits on its main polluting industries which produce cement and electricity and refine oil. Companies will be able to sell unused emission allowances.

Rich industrial countries are facing growing criticism for damaging international financial markets and the environment through their unwillingness to address the interwoven nature of the global economy and ecosystems that draw their own borders. Brazil and Mexico won praise at recent UN talks in Poland attended by 145 environment ministers. Meanwhile, the USA and UK remain focused on their financial catastrophes with the notable exception of California.

California just adopted the USA’s most comprehensive climate plan. Gov. Schwarzenegger believes “these regulations will spur the state’s economy and serve as a model for the rest of country. When you look at today’s depressed economy, green tech is one of the bright spots out there, which is yet another reason we should move forward on our environmental goals.” California’s cap and trade system is similar to Mexico’s in that it provides companies financial incentives for reducing carbon emissions.

President Bush circumvented California’s tough 2006 restrictions on auto pollution by blocking the law from taking effect, but California officials trust that President-Elect Obama will remove this obstacle to clean air and growth in the state’s green economy industries. According to environmental ministers to the UN, “the attitude of rich countries borders on the immoral and is counterproductive”.

Brazil and Mexico are seeking a larger role in convincing an expanded G-7 that they can aid ailing international markets and reduce havoc from carbon emissions. The UN Secretary-General urged leading economies to provided real leadership on these two issues by answering the calls of emerging economies. He stating in Poland, “The economic crisis is serious; yet when it comes to climate change, the stakes are far higher.”

Obama: A Better Neighbor for Latin America

Mango Steve — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 19:59:00 +0000

Barack Obama is now the presumptive Democratic nominee and is likely to defeat Republican John McCain in this year’s race for the presidency. What type of friend will Mr. Obama be to our neighbors in the hemisphere? It is a good time to consider Mr. Obama’s positions and statements concerning Latin America:

(Photo Credit: Alex Brandon/Associated Press)

Mr. Obama recognizes that we have neglected our neighbors. “As has been the case throughout the world, our standing in the Americas has suffered as a result of the misguided policies and actions of the Bush Administration. The United States can ill afford this deterioration of our standing. With each passing day, we draw closer together to our neighbors to the south. This convergence creates new challenges, but it also opens the door to a more hopeful future.”

Mr. Obama will make Latin American relations a higher priority; he sees Mr. Bush’s declaration of 2007 as ‘the year of engagement with the Americas’ as too little, too late. “One year of engagement out of seven is simply not good enough. In light of the Bush Administration’s woeful record, creating false expectations does more harm than good. We must be realistic about the challenges we face, and what we are doing to address them. We must devote our full time, and our respectful attention to our relations within the hemisphere. “

Neither of this year’s candidates for President could have a weaker energy policy than Mr. Bush put forth. To his credit, Mr. Obama recognizes Latin America’s energy policy successes. “Brazil’s more than 30 years of renewable fuel technology investments allowed it to achieve energy independence last year. Ethanol now accounts for 40 percent of Brazil’s fuel usage. More than 80 percent of cars sold in Brazil today are flex fuel vehicles—capable of running on gasoline, ethanol, or a mixture thereof. Greater Brazilian production of renewable fuels could boost sustainable economic development throughout Latin America, and reshape the geopolitics of energy in the hemisphere, reducing the oil-driven influence of Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez. The more inter-hemispheric production and use of ethanol and other biofuels occurs, and the more such indigenously-produced renewable fuels are used to replace fossil fuels, the better it is for our friends in the hemisphere.”

Mr. Bush has been a fair-weather neighbor. Mr. Obama envisons a more altruistic approach to Latin American relations. “In Uruguay, President Bush has the opportunity to forge closer ties with President Tabaré Vázquez, and to show that the United States is ready, willing, and able to work productively with democratic-left governments. The United States is seen as supporting democracy when it produces a desired result. It is vital to reverse that trend.”

Intelligent people realize the war on drugs is a poor use of taxpayer resources, as is building prisons to house nonviolent drug users. Mr. Obama understands that billions of dollars in US aid has gone toward war profiteering and the spraying of poisons on villages in S. America to kill crops such as coca. These herbicides poison local water tables. Mr. Obama is against Plan Columbia. He is not the first candidate to use drugs, but he is the first to be honest about it. Mr. Obama proposes giving first-time, non-violent offenders a chance to serve their sentence in rehabilitation programs rather than prisons. He understands that monies would be better invested in reducing the market in the US through prevention and recovery programs. Mr. Obama has pledged to fund job training, substance abuse and mental health counseling to ex-offenders, rather than militarization of Columbia and Mexico. Bill Clinton answered a question about his drug use by saying he had tried marijuana, but “didn’t inhale.” When asked, “Did you inhale?” Mr. Obama replied, “That was the point.” It has been said that such honesty speaks to a generational change in politics, that new voters are more concerned with their leader’s truthfulness than with their youthful transgressions. (John K. Wilson, 2007)

Mr. Bush’s solution to the immigration question is to build fences between the USA and Mexico. This appallingly short-sighted and damaging act is a return to backward Berlin-wall thinking (and a billion dollar gift to Mr. Bush’s contractor buddies in Texas). Mr. Obama voted against the Coburn Amendment (SA 1311) to S. 1348 to increase border control by requiring construction of the border fence. He prefers a policy approach. “The relationship between the United States and Mexico is among our most important in the world. But our complex relationship with Mexico has become captive to a single issue: the immigration debate in our country. There is consensus that our immigration system is broken. It is past time to fix it, and I am proud of my own support for a workable solution.”

In summary, Mr. Obama will be a much better neighbor than Mr. Bush. He should visit Latin America early in his administration, and often. Mr. Obama has pledged to do so, adding… “We ignore Latin America at our own peril.”

What is the sense in ignoring our neighbors until they can help us? I submit that this is ugly behavior. Unlike Mr. Bush in Austin, Mr. Obama helped his neighbors in Chicago before being elected to office. I am confident that he will expand upon this neighborliness when he moves to D.C.