Global Voices - Brasil

Google in Brazil: Who Guards Orkut's Playground?

2006-08-24T08:40:00.000-07:00

The Brazilian blogosphere is talking about Google or more specifically about Orkut, its social network which has attracted a huge number of players. In order to understand Google's significance in South America's biggest country it must be realized that today of the 20 million Brazilians with access to the Internet , approximately 17 million are in Orkut. Indeed, it seems that the wholesale involvement of a society in a virtual space that has a peculiar (and loose) identity system is not providing good outcomes. Prosecutors in Brazil claim that there are users engaged in illegal activity on Orkut and they are going after Google because so far it has refused to hand over information about them.

O Ministério Público Federal (MPF) prepara duas ações contra a Google: uma civil (perda da representatividade e pagamento de indenização por danos morais coletivos) e outra criminal por proteção de criminosos (favorecimento pessoal) e desobediência. O inquérito policial foi instaurado há dois meses. Há cinco meses, o MPF aguarda o fornecimento dos dados de 27 perfis e criadores de comunidades do Orkut. A quebra do sigilo foi autorizada pela Justiça, mas nunca foi cumprida pelo Google Brasil, segundo afirmou o procurador da República no estado de São Paulo, Sérgio Gardenghi Suiama, que moverá as duas ações contra a empresa.
Orkut pode fechar o escritório do Google Brasil - undergoogle.com

The country's Public Attorney's Office filed two lawsuits against Google. A civil one -- loss of representativeness and compensation for collective moral damages -- and a criminal one for protecting criminals and refusal to comply. The political inquiry was launched two months ago. For six months now the MPF is waiting for the information about 27 profiles of community creators in Orkut. The disclosure was authorized by the justice system, but it was never processed by Google Brazil, as reported by the federal Prosecutor in São Paulo state, Mr. Sergio Gardenghi Suiama, who will file both lawsuits against the corporation.
Orkut can close Google's office in Brasil - undergoogle.com

A Comissão de Direitos Humanos e Minorias da Câmara envia hoje ao Congresso norte-americano um dossiê contendo denúncias de pornografia infantil e pedofilia na internet. O relatório será encaminhado pelo conselheiro da Embaixada dos Estados Unidos, Dennis Hearne. O relatório destaca o site de relacionamento Orkut, de propriedade da empresa norte-americana Google Inc., como local preferencial para a ação de pedófilos no Brasil. O documento foi elaborado, a pedido da comissão, pela organização não-governamental SaferNet Brasil, especializada em denúncias de ações criminosas desenvolvidas por meio da rede mundial de computadores. O dossiê apresenta fotos de páginas de pedofilia no Orkut e por isso não pode ser divulgado amplamente.
Direitos Humanos denuncia Orkut ao Congresso dos EUA - Informática Jurídica e Direito da Informática LEFIS

The Chamber's Minorities and Human Rights' Commission is sending today to the American Congress a complete report filled with denouncements of child pornography and pedophilia on the Internet. The report will be brought by the US Embassy's counselor, Mr. Dennis Hearne. The report focuses on the Orkut social software -- owned by the American corporation Google Inc. -- as a preferred place for pedophiles in Brazil. Following a Chamber Commission's request, the document was developed by the NGO SaferNet Brasil, which is specialized in denouncing criminal activities on the Internet. The report couldn't be more sensational as it presents pictures of pedophile pages in Orkut.
Human Rights denounces Orkut to the American Congress - Juridic Informatics and Info Law - Lefis

The big media splash caused by the moves of Brazilian officials seemed disproportional at first, and the company's response was intended to keep the flames under control. Google attempted to cool the issue by asserting that local authorities have been making their demands to the Brazilian office, which is composed of sales people and not lawyers. The prosecutors did not buy it. Their dramatic response was to level a $61 million (USD) fine and the possibility of having Google's Brazilian unit dissolved. But the company's stance of declining to hand over user information has raised its status among global network freedom advocates, and the attention captured by the issue signals an escalation of the latest dispute to pit the workings of a national legal system against the operations of the US global Internet giants.

O Google, historicamente, tem se negado a fornecer informações de seus usuários a justiça e este episódio levanta uma questão importante, até onde os dados dos usuários devem ou não ser ocultados dos órgãos públicos? O MP não tem intenção de aliviar nesta questão, portanto ou o Google cede, como já cedeu na China bloqueando dados indesejados ou sua existência no Brasil pode estar comprometida.
O Google anda tendo sérios problemas com a justiça brasileira - 1/2 Bit

Google has historically denied to hand over user information to the justice system, and this episode opens up an important question: in what situation do user data have to be disclosed to public organs? The Public Attorney has no intention of letting go of the issue, and therefore Google will have to cooperate, as it already did in China regarding censorship in its search service. Otherwise, its presence in Brazil can be at risk.
Google is having serious problems with Brazilian justice - 1/2 Bit

O procurador da empresa Google Brasil, Durval Noronha, contestou hoje (23), em uma conferência por telefone, os números apresentados pela organização não-governamental SaferNet à respeito dos crimes contra os direitos humanos praticados no site de relacionamentos Orkut. “São números subjetivos, não auditados, e nós questionamos esses números apresentados”, afirmou o procurador.
Procurador da Google Brasil questiona pesquisa - Pernambuco.com

Google Brazil's solicitor, Mr. Durval Noronha, in a phone conference today (23 August) has contested the numbers related to crimes against human rights performed in Orkut social network as presented by the NGO SaferNet. "These are subjective numbers, non-audited, and we are questioning the numbers presented", declared the solicitor.
Google Brasil's solicitor questions survey - Pernambuco.com

Mais uma vez, na disputa entre Google e Ministério Público de SP ficou evidente que a Google quer seguir as leis americanas e o MP, as brasileiras.O MP quer os IP's [espécie de RG do usuário] dos membros das comunidades acusados de pedofilia e outros crimes. A Google se nega fornecer esses dados.O detalhe é que essas informações sobre os IP's estão nos EUA, mais precisamente na Califórnia, local onde as leis e a cultura local protegem, de forma efetiva, o anonimato e a livre expressão na web.Por isso, o IP do usuário é um dado que dificilmente será divulgado. Vale lembrar que, ao contrário da Yahoo!, nem com pressão do governo chinês, a Google revelou dados de seus usuários. Preferiu censurar os resultados de suas buscas.O que o MP deveria fazer é se espelhar na rede social MySpace, que se tornou um lugar mais seguro depois que restringiu o acesso de menores e convocou diversos especialistas para monitorarem o site. Entregar dados de usuários é mais difícil. Agora, cá entre nós, esse papo de fechamento de escritório já é muito barulho.
Desse jeito nunca chegarão a um acordo! - Tudo na Net

One more time in this dispute it became clear that Google wants to follow American laws, while São Paulo's Public Attorney wants them to comply with the Brazilian law. He demands the IP numbers from the leaders of communities accused of pedophilia and other crimes. Google avoids handing over the information. The important fact is that the data about IPs is stored in the US, more precisely in California, where the laws and local culture effectively protects anonymity and freedom of expression on the web. That's why IP numbers will not be disclosed easily. It's important to remember that, different from Yahoo, not even pressure by the government of China has made Google disclose user information. It has preferred to restrict its search results. What the Public Attorney should do is follow what was done in MySpace, which has become a safer place since it has restricted minors access and hired many specialists to monitor the site. Handing over user data is much easier than that. But lets be honest: this bullshit of closing Google's office in Brazil is way over the top.
They will never reach an agreement! - Everything on the Net

Latest developments in the case seem to be leading to an open confrontation between the Internet giant and the Brazilian government, as company lawyers in the US start mentioning the possibility of closing Orkut in Brazil. That would be something interesting to watch, as this virtual environment has established itself as a cultural reference point in Brazilian awareness of the digital ecology. Bloggers are fast to react.

Google ameaça pôr fim ao Orkut no Brasil: a empresa, que está envolvida em uma série de processos judiciais, pode tomar a medida caso não seja possível coibir excessos dos usuários brasileiros ou não se chegar a um acordo com a Justiça do país. Para a direção do Google, seja qual for o resultado da atual disputa jurídica, a imagem do site pode sair irremediavelmente arranhada no Brasil, país que responde por entre 80% e 90% do total de usuários, de cerca de 20 milhões. Em conversa por telefone, a diretora jurídica do Google, Nicole Wong, disse que "nenhuma hipótese está descartada", mas que a empresa "está muito feliz em prover esse serviço ao Brasil e gostaria muito de poder continuar a fazê-lo".
Google ameaça pôr fim ao Orkut no Brasil - undergoogle.com

Google is talking about closing Orkut in Brazil: the company is involved in many lawsuits and can opt for the radical measure in case it cannot stop Brazilian user excesses or if it finds it impossible to reach an agreement with the country's justice system. Google admits that, in any case, the site's image is already damaged enough in Brazil, where there are between 80% and 90% of its 20 million users. In a telephone interview, Google's Associate General Counsel Nicole Wong declared that 'this could happen', although the company is 'happy to provide the service in Brazil, and would like to continue doing it'.
Google talks about closing Orkut in Brazil - undergoogle.com

Toda essa “confusão” graças ao povinho que existe no Brasil. A cada dia que passa estou mais assustada e mais revoltada, talvez por pegar o metrô “abarrotado” de gente todos os dias, e ver como existe gente educada nesse país. Engraçado que o ser humano, não consegue esperar 2 minutos o próximo trem. Mas minha revolta com a educação brasileira (pelo menos paulistana) não tem a ver com o Google. Apesar que se pensar bem, até teria um vínculo. Anyway.
Google tira o Orkut do Brasil?? - Dona Fifi

All this confusion just because of some 'people' here in Brazil. Each day I am more frightened and revolted, maybe because I take the overcrowded subway everyday and can see the education level we have in this country nowadays: nobody can wait two minutes for the next train. But my revolt against Brazilian education (at least in Sao Paulo) has nothing to do with Google. Although, thinking a little more... maybe it has a link. Anyway...
Google takes Orkut out from Brasil?? - Dona Fifi

E não é que eu acho que fiquei feliz com isso?! Aí todo mundo usaria o MySpace. Ou, se tudo desse certo mesmo, ninguém usaria mais nada e essa porra dessa moda ia pro saco. YAY! =D
Orkut CENSURADO?! - Blooooooooog

Hey, do you believe this is good news which makes me happy? Then everybody could use MySpace. Or, if everything goes right, nobody would use this crap anymore and this fad would go to hell. YAY! =D
Orkut Censored?! - Blooooooooog

The big media attention to the case is in direct proportion to the scale of Brazilian participation in the virtual environment. It's really huge, and could provide an interesting laboratory on how to deal with digital identity on the web. But observers are quick to point out that Google's loose attention to Orkut development -- especially the lack of proper controls in the subscription process -- has had a decisive impact in the formation of the Brazilian user base. Everybody in the country knows that most of the users of social networks are kids, and most parents are not even aware that the site is not supposed to be allowed to people under 18. Who's to blame? Would Google pay such loose attention if the majority of users were in the US?

Milhões de crianças brasileiras acessam o site de relacionamentos Orkut sem que os pais saibam que ele é um local preferencial para a ação de pedófilos no Brasil, revelou a pesquisa divulgada hoje (22), em São Paulo, pela organização não-governamental SaferNet. O site, de propriedade da empresa norte-americana Google, “é um site adulto. Está dito nos termos e regras da Google. E, no entanto, sabemos que os pais, muitas vezes, não sabem disso", disse Thiago Tavares, presidente da SaferNet.
Famílias precisam saber que site Orkut é apenas para maiores de 18 anos, alerta presidente de ONG - SaferNet Brasil

Millions of Brazilian kids use the Orkut social network without the agreement of parents, who don't even imagine that there is the preferred place for pedophile activity in Brazil. This is what was revealed by the survey published today (22 August) in Sao Paulo by the NGO SaferNet. 'Google's service is an adult site. This is expressed in Google's rules and terms of use, and parents are not informed about that', declares Thiago Tavares, SaferNet's president.
Families need to know that Orkut is for adult use, alerts NGO president - SaferNet Brasil

Enquanto no Brasil vivemos a polêmica do Google divulgar ou não divulgar os dados de certos usuários do orkut, acusados de pedofilia e racismo, temos uma situação oposta ocorrendo na Inglaterra. A Microsoft está trabalhando juntamente com a “UK Child Exploitation & Online Protection Centre” para proteger os usuários do Windows Live Messenger. Os usuários do Windows Live Messenger na Inglaterra, poderão reportar diretamente para as autoridades possíveis pedófilos no chat. Será adicionado um ícone “report abuse” (reportar abuso) que ao ser clicado enviará um aviso para o serviço de polícia online.
Microsoft “lava as mãos” - Diogo Azevedo

While in Brazil we are going through the debate of Google disclosing or not the data of some Orkut users accused of racism and pedophilia, we have a very different situation going on in England. Microsoft is working along with the "UK Child Exploitation & Online Protection Centre" in order to protect Windows Live Messenger's users. Now users in England will report directly to authorities the presence of pedophiles in chat rooms. There will be an added 'report abuse' icon which when clicked, will send a note to the online police service.
Microsoft “lava as mãos” - Diogo Azevedo

There must be some common ground for a positive settlement. It seems obvious that some Brazilian officials lack understanding of the web global dynamics AND Google has made equivalent errors in not paying close attention to inappropriate membership and behaviors of Orkut users until now. But the present 'tug of war' format of the debate will not help anybody. All sides should keep in mind that the case can be an opportunity bringing important insights about how to deal with identity in the web environment. Brazilians are ready (eager?) to explore these possibilities. It would be important also that Google Brazil's team should be prepared to think and move with respect for local cultural sensibilities while dealing with the implications created by such a huge experiment in social networking. It is obvious that 'adsense' sales people are not prepared to understand the deep issues that will keep emerging from the incredible digital laboratory spontaneously generated by social networking. Google's one-size-fits-all approach may just not fit everywhere, every time.

A Google Inc. diz que cumpriu todos os pedidos endereçados corretamente até hoje. A Folha apurou ainda que a empresa reluta em ceder dados de seus usuários, a não ser em acordo com a Justiça dos EUA, por temer que esses possam ter uso político. Precedentes citados são os de autoridades chinesas e iranianas, que já exigiram informações de dissidentes dos respectivos regimes.
Google ameaça fechar Orkut no Brasil - InfoNotícia

Google Inc. declared that it has complied with all requests correctly addressed until today. Folha has also found that the company is reluctant to hand over user data if not in accord with the US justice system because of its fear of political use of the information. The quoted precedents are the requests from Iranian and Chinese authorities who already asked for information about dissidents in the respective regimes.
Google can close Orkut in Brasil - InfoNotícia

E voltando a velha novela “Porque não Investir em Pindorama”, o Ministério Público Federal pede o fechamento do Google no Brasil. Não resta duvida que o Google deve tomar uma postura mais séria em relação a crimes cometidos em suas páginas, até porque pedofilia (por exemplo) é crime em tanto em Mountain View quanto em Belo Horizonte. Mas será que não basta que se faça um termo de ajustamento de conduta, negociado, de forma a equalizar as leis locais com as da Matriz da empresa ?... Por outro lado… Se fosse na China todos os 85 acusados já teriam sido executados e a familia estaria pagando a bala pelo Google Checkout.
and Justice for All - Déjà Vu

Coming back again to the old soap show "Why not investing in Pindorama (Brazil)". The country's Public Attorney's Office wants to close Google office in Brazil. There is no doubt Google has to take a more serious stance in relation to Orkut and the crimes happening on its pages, even more so because pedophilia is a crime in Mountain View just as it is in Belo Horizonte. But wouldn't it be just a case of negotiating an adjustment that would equalize the local law with the rules in the company's native country? Oppositely... If it was in China, all the 85 accused would have already been executed and the family would be paying for the bullet in Google Checkout.
and Justice for All - Déjà Vu

Many lessons can be learned from the case. The fear factor raised by the story's treatment in the traditional media is worth mentioning. Natives of the Net are especially sensitive to those kinds of stories and signals that call for more and more control of Net freedoms. Again -- in the midst of this confusing debate -- the blogosphere seems to offer source of discourse for a deeper understanding of the diverse sides involved. The guys at Google -- by the tone of a recent post in its Brazilian blog -- seem to share the special place given to children in Brazilian culture. This may be an historic opportunity of collaborating with the enthusiastic willingness of a country that is anxious to relate in the digital environment. This is how Brazilians might want the famous Internet mogul to treat children playing in a space created by Google:

No piquenique de verão do Google, todo mundo pode agir como criança. O evento é sempre cheio de atrações especiais, prêmios e um delicioso churrasco. Realmente, é melhor do que um parque de diversões! Por isso, vários Googlers trazem a família para aproveitar a tarde no Amphiteatro Shoreline, em Mountain View, Califórnia. O tema deste ano foi “Alice no País das Maravilhas”, os participantes tinham que realizar uma escolha difícil: brincar nas xícaras dançantes do Chapeleiro Maluco, no pula-pula da Lagarta ou no torneio de Pôquer da Rainha de Copas.
Aventuras no país das maravilhas - Google Brasil Blog

In Google's summer picnic, everybody can act like a child. The event is always full of special attractions, prizes and a delicious barbecue. It is really better than a park! That's why many Googlers bring their families to spend the afternoon in the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, California. The theme this year was 'Alice in Wonderland', and the participants had to make a difficult choice: play with Mad Hatter's dancing cups, or jump with the Dormouse, or play in the poker game with the Queen of hearts.
Adventures in Wonderland - Google Brasil Blog

Brazilians would most likely want to relate with a company which is so proud of its ability to create a safe fun environment for children as it does for its US customers. 17 million Brazilian Orkut users are an incredible opportunity. Maybe Google will be able to create a safe and fun environment here as well. Maybe the mutually shared cultural concerns for our children will lead to a creative adjustment in the Orkut playground. We will be watching....

Mommy Bloggers Achieve Community and Empowerment in the Lusosphere

2006-08-09T05:57:00.000-07:00

One of the most active blogging categories in the fast expanding Lusosphere is that of the 'mommy bloggers'. The movement is championed by a Brazilian blog which turned into book, and now is about to launch its own TV show on a cable channel. And beyond this example, there is a general enthusiasm displayed by the authors and readers of parenting blogs that is part of the general blogging phenomenon already noticed in many other spheres.

the crazy adventures of two girls who already delivered children

O Mothern, além de ser blog, livro, coluna de revista e casa de ópio para mães internautas viciadas em guestbooks, vai ser também um programa no GNT! O programa está sob a responsabilidade da produtora Radar Mixer, um povo muito competente. Pelo que vimos e palpitamos até agora, tem tudo para ser um sucesso. E não somos só nós duas, corujas, que achamos isso. A própria Letícia Muhana, diretora do canal, disse outro dia na imprensa que "Mothern estréia em agosto e será semanal - a primeira temporada terá 13 episódios, mas digo sem medo de errar que veio para virar programa de linha". Sendo assim, está confirmadíssimo: nossas aventuras e muitas outras situações mothernas vão estar na tela do canal mais feminino do Brasil. Assistam, nem que seja no televizinho, espalhem e comentem. Crescei e multiplicai-vos, motherns : )
programa no GNT - Mothern

'Mothern' -- besides being a blog, a book, a magazine column and an 'opium house' to guestbook addicted internaut mothers -- now is also gonna turn into a TV show on GNT! Radar Mixer is the competent crew which is in charge of the production. From what we could see and do until now, it has all the ingredients to be a success and we are not the only ones to think that way. Leticia Muhana, the channel director told the press that 'Mothern will launch in August as a weekly show -- the first season will have 13 episodes, but I am not afraid to say that it will turn into a permanent show in our program grid'. So it is confirmed: our adventures and many other 'mothern' situations will star on Brazil's most feminine channel screen. Please watch it, even if it has to be in your neighbor's cable, and then talk about it. Grow and multiply yourselves, motherns : )
GNT TV show - Mothern

The success of the blog seems to come from its ability to share authentic experiences while offering smart tricks on how to deal with day-to-day motherly issues. It manages to show how 'girls' can breed without falling into the cliches that usually make them feel over aged when dealing with motherhood and the approach has resonated deeply among young mothers. The desire to form community is also present, and this aspect is highlighted by many bloggers in Mothern's ring.

Mais um encontro Mothern, desta vez para receber a Carla, de Uberlândia. O encontro foi no Café Tina, ótimo como sempre (tanto o encontro quanto o Café). Reparem que nas paredes atrás da mesa está uma exposição de fotos com 40 clientes-gatos da casa. Logo no começo da noite, estávamos admirando as fotos quando a dona do Café veio conversar com a gente. Toda animadinha ela disse: “O melhor daí é que a maioria é hetero! Com pouca diferença, mas é!”. Obviamente com toda a minha mala suerte, os que achei mais interessantes eram gays...
Mais um Encontro Mothern - Mesa de Bar

There was another 'Mothern' meeting, this time to welcome Carla, from Uberlandia. The gathering was at Tina Cafe, excellent as usual -- both the meeting and the Cafe. Look at the wall behind the table, where there are pictures of 40 cute male customers of the Cafe. At the beginning of the event we were admiring the pictures while the owner came to talk with us. She urged to say: 'The best is that majority of them are hetero! For a tiny difference, but still the majority!". Obviously, my bad luck led me to be interested mostly in the gay minority...
Another 'Mothern' meeting - Bar table

"Todos que convivem comigo sabem o quanto ter conhecido um determinado BLOG transformou minha vida. Claro que foi um elemento no processo de transformação que já estava se desenhando. E foi o que faltava! Conhecer essas mulheres, hoje, mais do que virtuosas, foi um dos meus renascimentos. Elas e tudo que isso trouxe. Todos os encontros, conversas, desabafos, aprendizados. Descobri pedacinhos de mim nessas meninas todas, reunidas por algo em comum: MOTHERN. Não consigo esconder o meu orgulho supremo por ter esbarrado com essas moças por aí! Isto posto, aguardem!!! MOTHERN
P.S: Realmente não era brincadeira o lance de que as motherns dominarão o mundo"
Todos que convivem comigo sabem - Palavra Voada

"Everybody in my circle knows how much my meeting this specific BLOG has transformed my life. It was obviously an element in a process that was already in course, the one thing that was missing was here. To meet these more than virtuous women, today, has promoted one of my rebirths. Not just them, but also everything that happened because of them. All the meetings, conversations and learnings. I was able to find little pieces of me in all these girls who gathered because of something they had in common: MOTHERN. I can't hide my supreme joy of having met these young ladies! Mothern!
ps: The talk about "Motherns dominating the world" was not a joke."
Everybody in my circle know - Flown word

Ingredientes:
1 babá quase perfeita
1 carona de ida e volta
4 ou 5 taças de prosecco
água à vontade
Modo de fazer:
Poupe suas energias ao longo do dia, chamando a babá de manhã e deixando-a brincar com seu filho de 4 anos recém-completados. (Ele não vai gastar nem um dia a mais de análise porque a mamãe passou um sábado lendo na cama - talvez alguns dias a menos.) Vá de carona com o casal mais animado da festa, e assim garanta que será a primeira a chegar e a última a ir embora. Beba o prosecco todo de uma vez, antes de começar a música-pra-dançar. Vá pra pista. Pare a cada 5 ou 6 músicas e beba um copo d'água. Vá bastante ao banheiro, por motivos óbvios. Prepare-se para encarar o day after com dignidade.
Rendimento: 5 horas sem sair da pista
Receita para dançar sem parar após os 35 anos - Duas Fridas

Recipe on how to dance the night away after having 35 years
Items:
1 almost perfect nanny
1 ride for going and coming
4 or 5 prosecco glasses
water at will
Directions:
Save your energies through the day, calling the nanny in the morning to let her play and get accustomed with your (4 year old) kid. (He won't spend another day in therapy when grown old just because his mom spent a Saturday reading in bed -- indeed, it may save him some days of therapy). Get the ride with the most livened up couple in order to guarantee that you'll arrive early and also be the last one to leave. Drink all of the prosecco before start dancing. Go to the dance floor. Stop at each 5 or 6 tunes in order to drink a glass of water. For obvious reasons, do not forget to go to the bathroom. Prepare yourself to face the day after with dignity.
Serves:
5 hours dancing no stop.
Recipe on how to dance the night away after having 35 years - Two Fridas

The wave of 'mothernity' has influenced a whole generation of Lusophone 'mommy bloggers',and they keep linking to classic posts like the one that teaches how to endure the day after with dignity : ''1. They wake up and jump into your bed. Don't despair and keep your humor at positive levels. As you have chosen to live the best of two different worlds, be happy about that. Think about how it would be if your friends didn't want you at night, and your kids didn't want you in the morning. That would be awful!"

The community feeling among Lusophone 'mommy bloggers' is enlivened not only through meetings and linking together, but also by collective actions such as the one connected to the annual edition of the World Breastfeeding Week. The active and sincere participation is colored by individual perspectives and the sharing of authentic experiences seems to help mothers feel less alone, less stupid, less inadequate.

Hoje, 01 de agosto, começa a Semana Mundial da Amamentação. Mais de 120 países estão celebrando a data e nós, aqui em nosso mundinho blogal, estamos, também dando a nossa contribuição.Até agora, já são 116 blogs (alguns são fotologs) em nossa blogagem coletiva! e como é a "Semana Mundial da Amamentação", continuarei incluindo novos participantes até o dia 07 de agosto! Todo mundo pode participar, quem tem blog, fotolog ou qualquer espaço na internet, onde possa colocar alguma mensagem sobre amamentação, Como eu disse, pode ser um texto, uma foto, uma pintura, uma música... e se você também vai postar sobre amamentação, deixe seu nome e endereço aqui e eu acrescentarei à lista!
ATENÇÃO: Criei um blog para hospedar os posts d@s amig@s "Sem-Blog": Blogagem Coletiva. Se você não tem um espaço na internet, mas gostaria de deixar seu depoimento ou post, mande pro endereço: sdeestocolmo@gmail.com, se quiser, pode mandar foto também. Os depoimentos serão incluidos na lista aí acima.
Semana Mundial da Amamentação - Blogagem Coletiva - Síndrome de Estocolmo

August 1st, the World Breastfeeding Week is starting today. More than 120 countries are celebrating the date, and here from our little blogging world we will be giving our sincere contribution. We already have until now 116 blogs (some of them are photologs) in our collective blogging movement, and as we are just starting the week, I will be including new participants until August 7! Everyone can participate -- the ones who have blogs, fotologs, or any other space on the web to publish a message about breastfeeding. It can be an article, a picture, music... and if you are going to participate, leave your address so that I can put you on the list! ATTENTION: I've created a blog to host the 'blogless friends' posts: Collective Blogging. If you don't have a space on the Internet, and want to participate with something, send it to: sdeestocolmo@gmail.com. You can send a picture also, if you want, and the postings will be included to list above.
World Breastfeeding Week - Collective Blogging - Stockholm syndrome

Eu planejei amamentar meu filhote pelo menos durante os seis meses indicados, mas não passei de dois. Com esse "currículo" pensei estar excluída da blogagem coletiva sugerida pela Denise, a propósito da Semana Mundial da Amamentação. Mas por que não ? Uma boa hora para digerir o assunto que, passados quase quatro anos, ainda é custoso pra mim e também alentar outras mães que viveram ou vivem situação parecida. Talvez hoje, com mais maturidade e equilíbrio emocional, pudesse amamentar sem maiores problemas. E até consigo entender que as pedras que tomaram conta do meu peito diziam muito sobre as pedras do meu próprio caminho. De um tempo tortuoso que vivia. Foi uma experiência muito diferente do que eu gostaria. Foi penoso e fracassado, mas foi o possível. E tem que ter peito, até pra falar disso.
Leite derramado - Cria Minha

I planned to breastfeed my kid for at least the six first months as indicated, but I couldn't go beyond two. With this 'history', I thought I was excluded from the collective blogging suggested by Denise by the time of the World Breastfeeding Week. But why not? Maybe it is a good time to digest the issue that is still difficult for me to face, although almost four years have passed, and maybe a chance to comfort other mothers that passed or are passing through a similar situation. Maybe today, as I am more mature and developing better emotional balance, I could breastfeed without the same problems I had before. Now I can understand that the stones that filled my breast at the time were telling me about the stones that were lying my own path through life. Those were tortuous times for me, and it all happened very differently from what I was expecting. It was hard, and it was a failure, but it represented what was possible at the time. It takes courage to talk about that.
Spilled milk - My creation

As we observe the mommies' conversations, it is not difficult to imagine what all this energy and aggregating capacity could do if directed to political action. Although not yet visible in terms of real influence or power, this possibility is starting to be experimented with by some feminine movements in the blogosphere. With general elections scheduled for October in Brazil, some new blogs are trying to evaluate the political stances of congresspeople according to their positions on the main women issues.

Por sugestão de uma leitora, analisamos o perfil de parlamentares apontados/as por envolvimento no esquema de vendas superfaturadas de ambulâncias e equipamentos hospitalares. O objetivo foi verificar as posições com relação à liberalização do aborto.
Moral sanguessuga - Mulheres de Olho nas Eleições

Following a reader's suggestion, we analysed the profiles of those representatives accused of participating in the 'ambulances scandal'. The goal was to verify their position in relation to abortion legalization.
Leches Moral - Women with an eye on elections

"Blogar" é uma forma de relacionamento que pode ser prazerosa, além de ser uma ação política reveladora de uma atitude de abertura e acolhimento de uma nova forma de comunicação que é ágil, dinâmica e adequada para emissão e recepção de opiniões. Os blogs são ferramentas poderosas de ação na medida em que são tribunas que devem estar a serviço do debate de idéias. A Rede Feminista de Saúde (RFS), ao se estabelecer na blogosfera, o faz com a convicção de que oferece às suas filiadas a possibilidade de uma comunidade virtual sem fronteiras que, se bem aproveitada, poderá dar contribuições de vulto para que o Colegiado da RFS possa sentir cotidianamente o "Pulsar da Rede" e, assim, ter mais segurança na formulação e na execução de sua política.
Blog da Rede - Rede Feminista de Saúde

Blogging is a kind of pleasant relationship which, besides constituting a political action based on openness and receptivity, can also reveal a new and dynamic communication tool which facilitates the emission and reception of opinions. Blogs are powerful tools at service of the debate around ideas. The Health Feminist Network (RFS) is establishing itself in the blogosphere in order to offer its affiliates the possibility of virtual communication without borders and which also allows the permanent verification of the 'network pulse'. This possibility can provide more legitimacy to the formulation and execution of its policies.
Network's Blog - Health Feminist Network

'MommyBlogging is a radical act'. This was the name of a Session Discussion at BlogHer, the women bloggers conference which took place last month in San Jose, California. Some controversy erupted there as this category could be seen as "just" blogging about their feelings, their families and the joys and struggles of parenting, which could be translated into a less empowered blogging act.

We readers and authors of parenting blogs are looking for a representation of authentic experience that we're not getting elsewhere. We sure as hell aren't getting it from the parenting magazines. If you want to find out how to make nutritious muffins that look like kitty cats, you can read those. But a parenting magazine will never help you feel less alone, less stupid, less ridiculous. This is the service I think parenting blogs provide-we share our lopsided, slightly hysterical, often exaggerated but more or less authentic experiences. If one blogger writes about, say, her bad behavior at the doctor's office, then maybe at some point, some freaked-out new mother is going to read that and feel a little better-less stupid, less ridiculous-about her own breakdown at the pediatrician's.
Comment by Alice, at BlogHer '06 Session Discussion: MommyBlogging is a Radical Act! on Day Two - BlogHer

Women speaking up has always been radical in our society. Mommyblogging is definitely important as a method of bringing voice to women who aren't necessarily living in a mommy + baby fairyland. So many mommybloggers discuss issues like PPD, anxiety, autism, and other things that are still difficult and sometimes taboo to talk about with your friends and neighbors.
Comment by Mary Tsao, at BlogHer '06 Session Discussion: MommyBlogging is a Radical Act! on Day Two - BlogHer

The blogosphere has performed the role of perfect tool for minorities needing to express their values and experiences. Although pioneered by the geeks -- a category that is usually seen as predominantly male and tech driven -- blogging has already lost its once pronounced exclusiveness. Mommy blogging is bringing renewed life to this environment exactly because it deals directly with that: caring for life, which could also translates into love. What can be more basic, and direct, and full of life?

Devolva o manual (Ou "Durma com uma testosternona desta"...)
-"Mamãe, meu pinto tá duro !"
Cria Minha

Give back the manuals (or 'How to deal with such testosterone?'...)
- "Mom, my cock is hard !"
My Creation

Outro dia eu estava comentando com a Alice uma história acontecida com a minha estagiária e a namorada dela (aliás, ex-estagiária e atual colega de trabalho. Parabéns pela contratação, Elisa!).
A Lili estranhou:
- Ué, namorada? Ela não é menina?
Expliquei:
- É, mas tem meninas que preferem namorar outras meninas. A Elisa namora a Mirna.
Então ela ficou pensando um pouquinho e decretou:
- Tem uma vantagem, né, mãe, de namorar outra menina...
- Qual?
- Elas podem pintar a casa delas toda de rosa!
:-)
Barbie Girl - Mothern

On the other day I was commenting to Alice about a story that happened with a trainee and her girlfriend (or should I say, ex-trainee, as she was hired. Congratulations, Elisa!).
Lili found it strange:
- How is that? Isn't she a girl?
I explained:
- Yes, there are some girls who prefer to date other girls. Elisa dates Mirna. They are girlfriends.
She kept thinking for a while and then declared:
- There is an advantage in a girl having a girlfriend, Mom...
- What is that?
- They can paint their house all over in pink

"Querida, cheguei!" - "Dear, I am home!"

Posts and comments bring new insights to a media overexposed crime in Brazil

2006-07-22T18:10:00.000-07:00

Suzane von Richthofen, 22, her former boyfriend Daniel Cravinhos and his brother Cristian have each been found guilty of murdering her parents in October 2002 and sentenced to nearly 40 years in prison. The case has caught worldwide attention because Manfred von Richthofen, the murdered father, was the great-nephew of the First World War German flying ace known as the Red Baron. But for Brazilians the historical reference is just a minor detail in this tale of love across different social classes.

Como a Copa do Mundo já acabou, como as eleições são só em outubro, como a novela das 8 ainda não teve um assassinato misterioso que só será desvendado no penúltimo capítulo depois de muita especulação de um sem-número de apresentadores homossexuais de programas vespertinos, o povo brasileiro encontrou no caso Richtofen uma maneira de preencher suas vidas...Por que o caso Richtofen provocou mais discussão do que a máfia dos sanguessugas? Talvez porque Suzane e os Cravinhos tenham mexido com a família, uma instituição ainda sagrada aos olhos do brasileiro. Ao auxiliar no assassinato dos pais, Suzane violou uma ordem social intocável, destruiu de maneira vil a relação pais/filhos.
Crítica: República Federativa von Richtofen - Chapéu de Côco

"As the World Cup has already ended, elections are not taking place until October, and there is no evening soap show's misterious murder to be clarified by gay anchors in vespertine tv shows, Brazilians have found a new way to spice up their lives with the Richtofen case... Why has this case created more debate than the 'leeches scandal' [a case in which 1/3 of the congress is accused of taking bribes for ambulance contracts]? Maybe because Suzane and the Cravinhos brothers have messed with the family, still a sacred institution to the Brazilian people. While helping in the murder of her parents, Suzane has violated an untouchable social rule, destroying the parental relationship."

De um lado os irmãos pobres que socialmente são suscetíveis à marginalidade, não é verdade? Do outro a menina rica que foi iludida e acabou cometendo um crime. Pobre menina rica, se deixou convencer a matar seus pais, tão ingênua, tão menina... Esse caras malvados!
A justiça é igual para todos - Apenas Opinião

"On one hand, the poor brothers who are socially susceptible to crime life, right? On the other hand the rich girl who was deluded and ended up committing a crime. Poor rich girl, convinced to kill her parents, so naive, so childish... Those bad guys!"

O caso mexeu com a cabeça de todos os brasileiros, pois uma filha matar os pais por dinheiro, e ainda junto ao namorado e cunhado, ainda não é tão comum de engolir, e essa mesma população espera que a justiça realmente seja feita, para mostrar que os ricos não podem fazer tudo o que querem e que se assim fizerem terão uma punição à altura.
Esperança de justiça no País - Pensamentos sem limites

"The case has puzzled all Brazilian minds, as it is still difficult to accept a daughter killing her parents for the money, along with the boyfriend and his brother. Those same Brazilians wait for justice in order to show that rich people can't go on doing whathever they want unpunished."

Todos têm o direito de expressar sua opinião e defendê-la, mas se olharmos bem, não é isso que vem ao caso. Note que não é a morte do casal Richthofen o tema das discussões, mas sim a filha deles, Suzane von Richthofen. Essa menina atraiu muita gente, em vários aspectos, sejam eles favoráveis ou contra ela. Mas toda a história que a envolve - e não ao casal Richthofen - parece ser apenas uma razão para se discutir valores, a oportunidade que faltava para muitos dizerem, realmente, o que pensam e o que sentem nessa vida.
O final você decide - Ponto de Vista

"Everyone has the right to express and defend their own opinion, but if we take a carefull look, this is not the case here. Be aware that the Richthofen couple's murder is not the main issue in debate, but their daughter, Suzane von Richthofen. This girl has attracted lots of people in many ways, in favour and against her. However, the whole story concerning her seems to be only an oppportunity to discuss values, a chance for many to really express what they think and feel about life."

There are some aspects of the case that should help explain the extraordinary amount of time devoted by the Brazilian media to the Richthofens' murder. By the time the crime occured, the angel faced Suzane was at first taken by the public as the rich girl corrupted by the druged boyfriend and his weird tattoed brother. As time passed by, some reports of Suzane's behaviour in prison and in the relationship with her younger brother started to show signs of a complex personality. The shifts on how the public was supposed to understand the crime motivations, along with the natural appeal of the classically intense parricidal scene set the conditions for the overheated coverage.

Acho um absurdo essa cobertura massiva que a mídia tem dado ao julgamento do caso Richthofen. Admito que se trata de um caso que abalou o país quando aconteceu (afinal, um filho matar os pais é operar uma verdadeira inversão no papel de submissão que aquele geralmente deve exercer em relação a estes), e que uma certa repercussão já era de se esperar. Mas o tanto que a mídia tem falado sobre o caso nos últimos dias (sem mencionar o quanto falou no lapso de tempo entre o assassinato e o julgamento) já tem extrapolado os limites do razoável!
Julgamento teatralizado - Ius Communicatio

"The massive coverage given to the Richthofen case judgement is really appalling. I admit the crime has shaken the country when it all happened (daughter killing parents represents an extreme role inversion in respect to the submission expected in father-son relationship), and it is normal to have some media buzz around such cases. But the amount of coverage in the last days (not to mention the whole period between the crime and the judgment) has far exceeded the reasonable limits!"

O final é tão patético como todo este processo. Prenderam um fotógrafo da Folha de São Paulo e o assistente de acusação fez um teste de som, com uma espécie de contagem regressiva. Há espaço para tudo. O que, na minha opinião, faz com que esse júri seja tão absurdo. Muitos palhaços juntos… É realmente triste ver este picadeiro de sensacionalismo. Engraçadas são as reclamações da turma da Band rádio, que está furiosa com alguns seguranças do fórum. Segundo um dos jornalistas, ele foi retirando por estar anotando em seu bloco com uma caneta branca, a qual, poderia ser um gravador disfarçado. E reclama-se das teorias de conspiração, mas isso foi o fim.
Caneta Gravador - Sur le divan d'Amélie Poulain

"The end is as pathetic as it was the whole process. They arrested a photographer from 'Folha de Sao Paulo', and the accusation assistant made a sound test when he started to talk, something like a media-friendly regressive counting. There is room for all kinds of weird things, what in my opinion turns this jury into an absurd scene. There are all kinds of clowns here... it's really sad to watch this sensacionalist stage. It's funny -- the guys from 'Band Radio' are mad with the security who took one of the journalists out of the room because he was taking notes with a white pen which 'could' have a hidden recorder in it. They talk about conspiracy theories, but this is ridiculous."

The effects of media industry transition could also be observed as some mainstream news teams used the blog model to report last minute information from court room.

Agora há pouco, ficamos sabendo que, pelo notebook de sua mesa, no palanque, o juiz - sim, o juiz Alberto Anderson Filho! - acompanha tudo aquilo que é publicado na internet, ali, enquanto preside a sessão, acreditam? E a gente só fica sabendo disso hoje, nos últimos momentos do julgamento. Um beijo, aí, juiz! Se estiver acompanhando a CAPRICHO também, dá uma piscadinha para cá!
Julgamento on-line tem audiência inusitada - Blog Capricho

"Some moments ago we came to know that the judge is following everything that is published about the judgement on the Internet through his notebook -- yes, the judge Alberto Anderson Filho! -- while presiding over the session, do you believe that? And we just found out about that today, in the last moments. A kiss for you Mr. Judge! In case you are following 'Capricho', send us a wink!"

With so much content to fuel the national debate on the theme, the heating up of the connected conversation over the Internet is just a natural consequence. Checking out the temperature of the issue in Orkut tells us that there are more than 500 communities created to debate the case, many of them displaying as titles different ways of making Suzane pay for her crime [Suzane, burn in hell, Suzane deserves eternal torture, etc.]. But there are also some groups which defends her from what they see as a persecution, and even some of them wondering if Suzane is influenced by the EMO style. A 'Free Suzane' campaing has started right after the sentence came out, and a recently launched Suzane's fake blog tries to make humour out of her disgrace. There were also some blogs specially created to debate and report the case.

Suzane foi presa, cumprirá 39 anos de cadeia. Existe desconstrução pior do que passar dez anos na cadeia? Foi selado o destino da jovem. Está selado o fim deste blog, ou não… Ainda não sei…
Fim da desconstrução - Desconstruíndo Suzane Von Richthofen

Suzane was sentenced, and will pay 39 years in prison. Is there a worst 'deconstruction' than
staying ten years in prison? Her destiny was sealed, as it is also the case of this same blog, or not... I still don't know...
End of deconstruction - Deconstructing Suzane Von Richthofen

Terminou mais uma novela de grande sucesso no Brasil. Embora seja (também) exibida pela Rede Globo, não se trata de uma produção dessa empresa, mas sim do caso “Suzane von Richthofen”. Como eu, é possível que você já não aguente mais ouvir falar disso, mas uma coisa me chamou a atenção e foi confirmada por uma rápida pesquisa no Orkut: a quantidade de pessoas que defendem a garota! Não que essas pessoas defendam atos criminosos - pelo menos não de assassinato -, mas há quem acredite que Suzane é inocente, há quem ache que ela é culpada, mas não tão culpada assim, há quem criou fantasias eróticas com ela e, o mais incrível, há quem acredite na culpa dela e a julgue uma heroína por causa disso. Este último tipo é o que mais me causou surpresa.
O final você decide - Ponto de Vista

Another successfull soap opera has come to an end in Brazil. Although it is (also) presented by 'Rede Globo', in this case it has not been produced by this media corporation -- we are talking about the 'Suzane von Richthofen' case. Probably you can't hear about this anymore, just as I can't, but there is one thing that caught my attention in a quich search in Orkut: the number of people that defend her! It is not that they are defending people who committ criminal acts -- at least not murder --, but there are people who believes Suzane is inocent, while there are others who think of her as guilty, but not so much, and there are some who fantasize erotically, and even some who believe in her guilt while considering her a heroine for what she did. This last type is the one who suprised me most.

Eu amo Suzane Richthofen. Você não leu errado. Esta é a comunidade criada para a delicadeza em pessoa chamada Suzane Richthofen. Esse é um lado ruim da liberdade de expressão!? Ou apenas uma confusão feita por pessoas que não sabem diferenciar a ficção da realidade?! Gostar do bandido em um filme, é uma coisa até que aceitável.
Caso Richthofen - Psicologia - Os humanos do orkut

'I love Suzane Richthofen'. No, you did not read wrongly. This is the community created for the gentle person called Suzane Richthofen. Is this freedom of expression's bad side!? Or is it just a confusion between ficction and reality?! It's still acceptable to like the bad guy in a movie.

como é possível adolescentes criarem uma comunidade de "adoração" a uma assassina confessa? Isso não cabe na minha cabeça, é demais pra mim. Temos que fazer algo pra que nossas cabecinhas de vento não continuem com esse tipo de atitude. Imaginar algo do tipo " eu amo suzane Richthofen" ou "eu defendo suzane richthofen" e´algo que temos que conter. Quem não teve problemas com os pais na adolescencia? Todos nós tivemos ... Todos nós passamos por isso, faz parte do processo. Com certeza todos nós brigamos, gritamos, fizemos cenas, choramos por raiva, por broncas merecidas, por não concordar com o que "aquelas pessoas" tão autoritárias - ( nossos pais) nos diziam, melhor, nos impunham ... volto a dizer, faz parte do processo e do nosso crescimento como seres humanos. Tenho certeza que muitas noites fomos dormir com uma raiva dentro de nós, por algo que nos agradou, mas nem por isso arquitetamos matar nossos pais, e pior nem por isso, matamos.
"VON RICHTHOFEN" ... ainda não é o comentário definitivo - Todo Amor que Houver Nessa Vida

How is it possible that some teens create a tribute community to a confessed murder? This just doesn't fit to me, it is too much for me. We have to do something in order to stop this kind of atitude from our little empty-headed youngs. This like 'i love Suzane Richthofen' or 'I defend Suzane Richthofen' is something we have to stop. Who did not have problems with parents during teen years? We all had... We all passed by this, it is part of the process. We all fought, shouted, made scenes, cried in anger for some deserved scolds, for not agreeing with what those authoritarians (our parents) would say to us... I will say it again, it is part of the process of growing as human beings. I am sure that there were many nights we would go to bed with anger inside, for something we have disagreed, but that was no reason for planning our parents murder.

The diversity displayed in the blogosphere presents interesting analysis based on distinct perspectives. Ranging from posts with philosophical approaches to others with elaborated psychological diagnoses, we dare say that the explicit personnal subjective touch is always present. The result is a multicolored report that devises a broader comprehension of the social meaning embeded in the plot, and a much clearer insight of the many emerging thruths.

Então nos perguntamos: O que nos torna responsáveis pelas nossas escolhas? Quando estamos em situações que ilusoriamente nos obriga a tomar uma atitude drástica, ou uma determinada ação, o que nos torna responsáveis? Leibniz afirma: “Há, portanto, uma série de coisas presentes e passadas, que determinam a minha ação agora”. O que Leibniz quer dizer é que toda causa possui um efeito, “há uma infinidade de figuras e movimentos presentes e passados que entram na causa eficiente”. Assim surgem duas novas indagações: a) O que levou a Suzane a praticar esse ato tão bárbaro? b) De acordo com as colocações de Leibniz, nós somos determinados de certa forma, com maior ou menor grau, por uma infinidade de coisas presentes e passadas. Assim, no caso da Suzane estar influenciada por uma paixão doentia que tinha pelo namorado, retira toda a sua responsabilidade no que se refere ao ato criminoso?
O que a reflexão de Leibniz e Sartre pode contribuir para o caso Richthofen? - Agonia e Extase

We ask ourselves: What makes us responsible for our choices? When we are in situations which make us think that we should do something drastic, or take some extreme action, what is it that makes us responsible for what is done? Leibniz declares: 'There are series of present and past things which determine my action now'. What Leibniz says is that every cause has an effect, 'there is an infinity of present and past characters and movements that enters into the efficient cause'. Therefore, we have two qustions: a) What lead Suzane to such barbaric act? b) According to Leibniz, we are somehow drived, in different levels, by an infinity of present and past things. So if Suzane was influenced by a strong passion for her boyfriend, does it takes off her responsability over her criminal act?

Toda a família contribui de alguma forma para a poluição moral que existe no mundo, inclusive a família Richtofen, inclusive a minha, inclusive a sua. Suzane e os Cravinhos pagarão pelos crimes que cometeram. Já estão pagando. O que eles levam não é exatamente o que eu chamo de vida. Estão privados de liberdade, lazer, dignidade e rotulados como monstros até o fim de suas existências miseráveis. Aqui se faz, aqui se paga. Pra mim, os 30 anos que os 3 passarão na cadeia é a menor parte do castigo. Tempo passa, rótulos ficam, dignidade nunca volta. Então, porque o povo quer a cabeça dos assassinos em um prato? Tudo isso já não é suficiente? Pimenta nos olhos dos outros é refresco; um ditado que reflete bem a sádica mentalidade do brasileiro.
Crítica: República Federativa von Richtofen - Chapéu de Côco

Every family contributes in some way to the moral polution of the world, including the Richthofen family, and also yours, and mine. Suzane and the Cravinhos brothers will pay for the crimes they committed. They are already paying. Their existence now is not exactly what I would call life. They are deprived of freedom, leisure, dignity and are labeled as monsters until the end of their miserable existences. Here we do, here we pay. In my view, the thirty years the three of them will spend in prison is the minor part of the sentence. Time passes, but labels stay, and dignity never comes back. So, why are people asking for their heads in a plate? Is it that all this is still not sufficient yet? Pepper in someone else's eyes is a salve; it is a proverb which reflects well the sadic Brazilian mentality.

Vejam como o brasileiro é engraçado. Milhares de pessoas morrem no Brasil de forma cruel, covarde, fria, e ninguem sai exaltando seu clamor por justiça pelas ruas. Coisas como essas, só acontecem no brasileiro quando algo acontece à alguem de uma classe mais favorecida, já perceberm? Sim, pois há pouco tempo, houve um caso semelhante onde uma jovem matou seus pais. Mas a garota não virou manchete do Fantástico, pois era pobre e feia... Alguem se indgnou? Alguem foi levantar bandeirinha no horário nobre falando "ah, precisamos de justiça", ou "ah, essa juventude, está perdendo os principios". Claro, pois quando um pobre rouba um real no mercado, os moralistas caem matando a pau, pedindo pena de morte, prisão perpétua, e ninguem pensa em recuperação, pois para eles é "normal" que um jovem pobre e/ou negro cometa um crime.
Brasil: A terra dos humoristas! - Jornalismo Pirata

See how Brazilians are funny. Thousands of people die in cruel situations in Brazil, and nobody claims for justice in the streets. Things like this only happen with cases involving the favored classes, have you noticed? Not so long ago, there were a similar case where a young girl killed her parents. The girl did not make the headlines at 'Fantastico', as she was poor and ugly... Has anyone manifested? Was there anyone to wave flags on the tv 'calling for justice', or saying 'oh, the youth is losing its principles'. Sure, cause when a poor steals money at the market, the moralists are ready to beat him, to ask for the death penalty, life prison, and nobody thinks about rehabilitation, cause for them it is normal that a young poor and / or black committs a crime.

It is still a mistery what made this case such a phenomenon of attention in Brazil, and some negative consequences of the media overexposition of defendants, lawyers and prossecutors -- specially on TV -- are obvious to many. On the other hand, blogs are creating opportunities for new and improbable reporters to share fresh perspectives, while also offering a well equiped content distribution platform for everyone -- even professionals from mainstream media -- who wants to engage in real conversation and relationship.

Essa semana passei por uma situação que confundiu muito (e quando eu digo muito, leia-se MUITO MESMO!!) a minha cabeça e mexeu e mudou muito (novamente coloquem enfâse) minha forma de pensar, de encarar, analisar e principalmente JULGAR as pessoas..Fui levada por um impulso curioso e , inicialmente sem valor nenhum, e pedi a minha irmã que me levasse para assistir um dia o julgamento de Suzane e os irmãos Cravinhos...O intuito de todo esse texto foi apenas para dizer que a partir desse dia eu passei a julgar menos as pessoas pelos seus atos apenas e sim pelo seu TODO..Onde entram; ato, circunstância, motivo e várias outras coisas.. E o mais interessante é que precisei me embrenhar em algo completamente fora dos meus propósitos e interesses para conseguir compreender certas coisas tão simples...
*Julgamento* - My world, my rules

This week I`ve gone through a situation that has confused me a lot (and when I say a lot, you can read A LOT, REALLY!!) and has changed (new enphasis here) my way of thinking, facing, analysing, and (mainly) judging people. I was led by an impulse of curiosity to ask my sister to take me to watch the court proceedings in Suzane and Cravinhos brothers judgement. The main goal of this post is to tell everybody that from this day on I will judge people less for their acts, and more for the whole. Where we have: act, circunstance, motive and many other things. The most interesting is that I had to dwelve into something completely out of my interest range in order to clarify such simple things...

Jabour, Nacif, Tardelli, Nadir – este com um comportamento que compromete a imagem da promotoria perante qualquer cidadão dotado de civilidade – mostraram o mal que o excesso de mídia provoca em pessoas despreparadas, imaturas. E o mal que o excesso de exibicionismo provoca para a justiça.
O vaudeville - Luis Nassif

[lawyers and prossecutors] Jabour, Nacif, Tardelli, Nadir -- the last one displaying a behaviour that stains the image of federal prossecution in front of any civilized citizen -- showed how bad excessive media can be for some unprepared and imature minds. And also how much harm excessive exhibitionism can do to justice

O jornalista e blogueiro Luis Nassif comentou em seu blog a maneira “incisiva” que promotores e advogados atuaram durante o julgamento de Suzane Ritchtoffen e dos Irmãos Cravinhos. No blog dele procure o post (O vaudeville). Logo as respostas emergiram do correio eletrônico do jornalista. As respostas reforçam a máxima olho por olho, dente por dente. Confira o post (O Espelho da Catarse). O fato é que vivemos em uma sociedade tomada pela violência e pelo medo. Com uma justiça lenta e ineficiente na maioria dos casos, acaba se tornando comum, as pessoas pegarem a violência pela violência. Ai eu pergunto: onde vamos parar?
Sem limite - Liberdade Digital

Journalist and blogger Luis Nassif has commented in his blog about the 'incisive' way with which prossecuters and lawyers had acted during the court proceedings of Suzane Ritchthofen and Cravinhos brothers judgement. In his blog, look for the post 'O vaudeville'. Suddenly comments started to emerge from his electronic mail. The messages reinforce the 'an eye for an eye' proverb. Check out the post 'The Mirror of the Catarsis'. The fact is that we live in a society taken by violence and fear, and a justice that is slow and ineficient in the great majority of the cases, making people believe in violence as a good answer for violence. All this makes me ask: where are we gonna stop?

There is plenty indications that some of us are already stopping in order to write and share. Blogging can turn violent feelings into debate, and the resulting free flow of conversation seems to be capable of creating new models of collective awareness.

Lusophone echoes around the world most blogged conflict

2006-07-17T13:18:00.000-07:00

The conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon is shaking the blogosphere. The effects can be felt all over and as conversations arise everywhere, lusophone bloggers could not be appart. It is important to mention that Brazil hosts the biggest Lebanese diaspora -- 8 million Lebaneses and descendants are living in this Portuguese speaking country, something like two times the population in Lebanon right now! This fact alone is already a hot topic as we can see below.

O Brasil tem tal força integradora multicultural que dissolve todas as nacionalidades e raças (com exceção de uma). Os brasileiros de origem libanesa, se contados por terem pelo menos um lado libanês (como eu) atingem 16 milhões. De sobrenome libanês as melhores estimativas dão como 7 a 8 milhões. É uma população extremamente representativa, mas que não está presente nos conselhos da diáspora, congregada em torno da União Libanesa Mundial com sede no México, onde há só um desconhecido brasileiro. Talvez seja essa uma força e uma fraqueza do Líbano. Os libaneses se integram tão bem que esquecem as raízes, especialmente no Brasil.
O bombardeio do Líbano, by reader André Araújo - Luis Nassif

Brazil has such multicultural integrating power that dissolves all nationalities and races (with just one exception). The Lebanese Brazilians, if counted the ones with one Lebanese side (like myself), reach 16 million. The best guess based on Lebanese surnames counts around seven to eight million. It is an extremely representative population, but which has no presence in the diaspora councils congregated around the World Lebanese Cultural Union based in Mexico, where there is only one unknown Brazilian. Maybe this is a Lebanese strenght and at the same time a weakness: integration is so easy that they forget their roots, specially in Brazil.

Não vou aqui discutir as razões do conflito, quem esta certo ou errado. Na verdade vou falar sobre o que aconteceu comigo: no momento em que vi o noticiário falando sobre o conflito, corri ao computador para tentar entrar em contato com meus primos, que moram no Líbano. Esses meus primos tem uma história curiosa: “encontrei-os” a menos de 1 ano. Pude “conhecê-los”, meu primo e minha prima, pela internet: ele procurava pelo restante da família, que se dispersou pelo mundo, e colocou o nosso sobrenome no google. Logo me encontrou, e me mandou um email falando sobre a parte da família que se encontrava no Líbano. Por fotos, pude conhecer meus priminhos, filhos deles, e por email meu avô pode manter contato com o primo dele (pai dos meus primos), que ele não via há anos. Desde então conversamos pela internet, em um parco porém entendível inglês.
O Conflito entre Israel e Líbano: sofrimento de inocentes - Pensamenteando

I won't debate here the reasons around the conflict, who is right or who is wrong. I will talk about what happened with me: in the moment I saw the news about the conflict, I ran to the computer in order to contact my cousins who live in Lebanon. There is an interesting story around these cousins: i 'found' them like a year ago. I've come to 'know' them through the Internet: they were searching for the rest of the family that have dispersed around the world, and googled our family name. They soon found us, and sent an email talking about the part of the family that stayed in Lebanon. Then I could 'meet' my little cousins, their kids, and my grandfather could contact his cousin (their father) with whom he lost contact many years ago. Since then, we've been talking on the Internet in a falty but understandable English.

A guerra já matou vários brasileiros.Na terça-feira, faltando 15 dias para voltar ao Brasil, morreu o garoto Bassel Termos,de 7 anos. A casa de parentes na cidade de Talousa,onde ele passava férias,foi atingida pelo bombar-deio israelense.De acordo com o tio do ga-roto, Mohamed Termos,que mora em Foz do Iguaçu, Paraná, ele terá de ser enterrado no Líbano mesmo.“Não tem aeroporto,estradas, nada funciona direito.Nem sabemos quando vai ser enterrado ”,afirma Mohamed.
Até onde vai a guerra? - the passira news

The war has already killed many Brazilians. On Tuesday died the 7 year old Bassel Termos, who would be coming back to Brazil in 15 days. His parents house where he was spending vacation was hit by the israeli bombing. According to the kid's uncle, Mohamed Termos, who lives in Foz do Iguaçu, Paraná state, he will be buried in Lebanon. 'There is no airport, no roads, nothing is functioning. We don't even know when the will be buried', says Mohamed.

It is becoming a pattern that every major worldwide event somehow boosts the blogosphere numbers. There are many reports about new blogs starting as a result of the buzz over the ever increasing influence of personal journals in the media narratives. This time the main feature is the enabled conversation between the civil population of the countries involved in the conflict, which sheds new light to the human perspective that used to be hidden by media strategies in times of war.

Uma notícia se destacou e não foi a do bebê rechonchudo carbonizado,vítima de um ataque de Israel, nos braços de um homem que saiu nas capas dos principais jornais. Foi aquela que se deu sobre a existência de jovens de ambos os lados relatando seus dramas na rede mundial de computadores através de bloggs que recebem comentários de outros jovens árabes, sírios, libaneses, judeus, cristãos... O cotidiano da guerra apresentado na escrita consciente desses jovens nos distancia das cenas enfumaçadas dos destroços de prédios em flashes no noticiário noturno da tv. E o que dizem sobre o fenômeno Oriente Médio nos aproxima, a todos, e nos coloca diante do semelhante, sem exotismos nem folklorismos bloggalizai-vos!
Primeiro post! - Desabafos, crônicas e impressões

There were some reports that called my attention, and it was not the ones about the burned baby victim of a israeli attack in the arms of a soldier which was on the cover of the main newspapers. The interesting one was about the existence of young people from both sides rerporting about their personal dramas in the worldwide computer network through blogs, which are then commented by other youths: arabs, sirians, lebaneses, jews, christians... The war daily routine presented by these youth's councious writing turns those destruction scenes flashing on TV news a much more distant reality. What these bloggers tell about the Middle East phenomenon puts us closer to them, in front of them, without exotic or folkloric labels. Blog yourself!

Mazen Kerbaj está em beirute quando Israel começa a bombardear a cidade. Com o aeroporto em chamas, e pontes destruídas, sair da cidade não é fácil, exige coragem. Decidir não sair, entretanto, exige além disto, um quê de sentimentalismo, uma pitada de idealismo burro e um pouco de loucura. Mazen tinha tudo isso mais um caderno de anotações e um laptop. Ele decide então fazer algo que poucas pessoas se lembrariam: ele faz um blog para contar sua história. Sob a música da artilharia que toca à noite, Mazen descreve, com rabiscos emocionados, arranhados e impulsivos, a rotina de viver em uma cidade sendo bombardeada. O boca a boca da internet logo traz leitores do mundo inteiro, querendo ver por olhos íntimos o que o noticiário diário não passa.
Prefácio - Computer for Monks

Mazen Kerjab was in Beirut when Israel started bombing the city. The airport was burning, bridges were destroyed, leaving the city is not easy, demands courage. The decision to stay demands more than that, something like a different feeling, a little dumb idealism and crazyness. Mazen had all these, and also some drawings and a notebook to tell his story. While listening to the bombs falling at night, Mazen reports his routine with traces fille with emotion and impulsiveness. The Internet 'word of mouth' brings readers from all around the world, eager to see through intimate eyes what the tv news will never show.

The blogosphere effects over the conflict are being largely recognized by the mainstream media, and it is no surprise that it somehow starts to be used strategically as media weapon. Blogs, chats, e-mail lists, comments sections in news portals... those are the new battle fields to be conquered by the ones who have elected words as their main tools in the dispute. The question is how much this possibility can be used as militar strategy coordinated by generals or ministers. Is it possible to recreate the passion amateurs show in their writing in the context of the typical hierarchical command native to the military action? Does a soldier pulls the trigger to fire the missile with the same conviction a blogger press the 'publish' click to cast out his ideas?

O ministro do Exterior israelense ordenou que os trainees de diplomatas identifiquem blogs e salas de chat com discussões sobre a guerra no Líbano, para que batalhões de ativistas judeus possam entrar nessas páginas e colocar comentários defendendo sua política externa. Cerca de 5.000 membros da União Internacional de Estudantes Judeus fizeram download de um software especial que identifica enquetes, salas de chat e blogs onde se debate o tema, para que possam influir nos resultados das pesquisas e nos rumos das discussões.
Israel também luta sua guerra na internet - wireless.jor.br

The Iraeli Foreign Affairs Minister has ordered diplomats trainees to identify blogs and chat rooms with debates around the war in Lebanon, so that activists platoons can go into those pages to defend their foreign policies. Something around five thousand members of the World Union of Jewish Students downloaded the special software the identifies surveys, chat rooms and blogs where the theme is debated, in order to influence discussions and survey results.

The origins of this conflict are far in history, and the many reasons both sides displays to justify their acts are somehow already known. When faced with the arguments for war, some bloggers choose to speculate around philosophical references in order to reach conclusions about fairness.

Nos 16 séculos desde a morte de Santo Agostinho, seu conceito de guerra justa permanece como base do pensamento ético em guerra. Para Agostinho, a proporcionalidade era um item fundamental na análise da justiça em batalha. Alguns interpretam esta questão da proporcionalidade sobre a ótica de balanço entre a destruição causada e o bem que esta destruição trará. Enquanto o bem for maior que o mal, pode... Mas o custo é em vidas. É em gente. A única maneira de defender a guerra como Israel a leva é endurecendo o coração para dizer que gente não importa porque há motivo para a guerra. Não vai aqui qualquer questão de caráter: há militares que pensam assim e honestamente. Esta, no entanto, é uma linha de raciocínio de todo anti-judaica.
Jus in bello - Pedro Doria - NoMínimo

In the sixteen centuries since Saint Augustine's death, his concept of a fair war stays as the basis for the ethical thinking about conflicts. In his view, proportionality was a basic item in the analysis of justice in battle. Some interpreters reads the proportionality issue through the optics of the balance between the caused destruction and the good that this destruction will bring. While the good is greater than the evil, it's ok... But in this case, the cost is in lives. People lives. The only way to defend the war as Israel takes it is hardening the heart and saying that people do not matter, as long as there are reasons to justify the war. Character issues are not the case here: there are military personel who honestly stands for this way of thinking. However, this is a totally anti-Jewish line of reasoning.

"a principal razão que justifica moralmente o início de uma guerra é a agressão e o direito à autodefesa. Neste sentido, Israel foi alvo de ataques de forças não convencionais mas bem armadas e que têm como objectivo político a destruição do Estado judaico. Como tal, Israel tem o direito – e mesmo o dever – de defender o seu povo... Porém, a justiça relativa às causas da guerra (o chamado ‘jus ad bellum’) não deve ser confundida com a justiça relativa à conduta na guerra (o ‘jus in bello’)... Neste aspecto, as forças israelitas com certeza que cometeram injustiças – em Canaã e não só – e a opinião pública mundial não as deve deixar passar em branco. Do ponto de vista da teoria da guerra justa, é preferível não abater um alvo que um inimigo sem escrúpulos protege com escudos humanos a abater esse mesmo alvo causando a morte de inocentes. O terrorismo consiste, precisamente, em matar inocentes intencionalmente. Por isso não devemos ter contemplações para com ele. Mas também nunca devemos copiar os seus métodos.
Guerra justa - DiarioEconomico.com

The main reason that morally justifies the start of a war is agression and the right to self defence. Israel was victim of attacks from non-conventional and well armed forces which stands for the political goal of destroying the Jewish state. As it is, Israel has the right -- or even the duty -- to defend its people. But the justice related to the war causes ('jus ad bellum') can't be confused with justice related to behavior in war ('jus in bello')... In this aspect, the Israeli forces are not being fair -- not only in Qana -- and the interational public can't silence about that. From the 'fair war' point of view, it's preferable not to attack a human shielded aim by an inescrupulous enemy. Terrorism is precisely the intentional killing fo inocents, and that is why it cannot be accepted. That is why we can never use its methods.

Talking about reasons, both sides have its own. There are the pro-Israel bloggers, who tends to see the conflict as a fair response to a menacing situation.

É importante que não nos esqueçamos destes “detalhes” quando nos apressamos a condenar Israel pelos ataques ao Sul do Líbano. Têm sido usados os mesmos adjectivos para analisar os actos terroristas do Hezbolla, que matam inocentes de forma deliberada, dos ataques de Israel às posições do grupo terrorista que mata inocentes de forma acidental. Só espíritos malévolos e pouco dados à análise concluem que Israel atacou postos das NU e matou inocentes em Qana de forma deliberada. Como é evidente isso só prejudica a posição política de Israel. Os pressupostos dos ataques do Hezbolla e de Israel não se confundem. Os primeiros visam o terror e o extermínio e por isso o objectivo principal é atacar alvos civis; os segundos têm como objectivo criar uma zona tampão que evite os bombardeamentos às cidades do Norte de Israel e por isso actuam sobretudo sobre as posições do grupo terrorista. O que também toda a gente conhece é que o Hezbolla se refugia junto de civis para evitar os ataques do exercito israelita. Só isto já demonstra o carácter sinistro deste tipo de actuação, que para tirar dividendos políticos não se importa de pôr em risco as populações compatriotas.
LENDO, VENDO, OUVINDO ÁTOMOS E BITS, de 31 de Julho de 2006 - Abrupto

It is important not to forget some 'details' when we rush to condemn Israel for the attacks in south Lebanon. The same adjectives are being used to label Hezbollah's terrorist acts, which kills innocents on purpose, and the Israeli attacks to terrorist positions which happens to accidentally kill inocents. Only evil spirits and the ones not confortable with deep analisys would consider that Israel deliberately attacked the UN posts and killed inocents in Qana. It is also evident that those facts are bad for Israel's political position in the conflict. The attacks from Hezbollah and Israel cannot be compared, as one is based on terror and translates into harm on civilians, and the other has the goal to create a security zone in order to halt bombings to cities in north Israel. Also, everybody knows that Hezbollah hides behind civilians in order to avoid attacks from the Israeli military, what demonstrates the sinister character of this strategy that risks lives in order to achieve political advantages.

Ouvir o mundo julgar a guerra entre Israel e Hizbollah enquanto ela se desdobra é como viver num universo moral Orwelliano. Com umas poucas exceções significativas (a liderança de Estados Unidos, Grã-Bretanha, Austrália, Canadá e alguns outros), o mundo - os governos, a mídia, os burocratas da Onu - perdeu completamente seus padrões morais. A palavra que torna desnecessário qualquer raciocínio lógico e magicamente transforma vítima em agressor é "desproporcional", como na expressão tão comum hoje em dia "resposta desproporcional de Israel". Quando os EUA foram atacados em Pearl Harbor, não responderam com um ataque "proporcional" em uma base naval japonesa. Eles lançaram uma campanha de quatro anos que matou milhões de japoneses, reduziu Tóquio, Hiroshima e Nagasaki a cinzas e transformou as ilhas japonesas em ruínas.
"Desproporcional" em Qual Universo Moral? - Eventos Humanos

To hear the world judging the war between Israel and Hezbollah while it unfolds is like living in an Orwellian moral universe. Apart from some few exceptions (the leadership of the US, Great Britain, Australia, Canada and some others), the world -- governments, media, and UN bureaucrats -- has lost its moral patterns. 'Disproportional' is the word that makes irrelevant any reasonable debate and magically turns victim into agressor, as in the nowadays common expression: 'disproportinal response from Israel' . When the US was attacked in Pearl Harbor, the response was not a 'proportional' attack to a Japanese base. They launched a four year campaign that killed millions of Japaneses, turning Tokyo, Hiroshima and Nagasaky into ashes and ruined the Japanese islands.

A "opinião mundial" está constantemente contra a América e Israel, dois dos mais democráticos países do mundo, mas silenciosa sobre alguns dos países mais cruéis do mundo... Israel não teme a "opinião mundial". Já está habituado a ser "massacrado" pelos media. A preocupação de Israel não é a opinião do mundo, mas a segurança e protecção dos seus cidadãos actualmente postas em causa por um dos grupos terroristas mais diabólicos do mundo.
AS OPINIÕES DO "MUNDO" - SERVEM A QUEM? - Shalom Israel

The world opinion is constantly against America and Israel, two of the most democratic countries in the world, but ain't got nothing to say about some of the cruelest countries in the world... Israel is not afraid of the world opinion, as it is accostumed to be massacred by the media. What worries Israel is not the world opinion, but the security and protection of its citizens which are now at risk because of one of the most diabolic terrorist groups in the world.

Porque, para os entendidos da praça em política internacional, só Israel é que ataca.
Já pensaram em ver melhor as notícias?! Por mais facciosas que sejam muitas vezes... Para quem não se lembra, esta crise no Médio Oriente começou com o rapto de soldados israelitas por parte do Hamas e do Hezbollah...
Quando se trata de Israel - GONIO

Why is it that, for the international politics specialists, it's only Israel who attacks? Have you tried to look carefully at the news? As unbalanced as it might be... For the ones who forgot, this Middle East crisis started with the kidnapping of Isreali soldiers by Hamas and Hezbollah...

ON the other side of the debate, there are many bloggers ready to condemn the way Israel is dealing with the situation. Some posts goes into details of the relationship between

Num relatório divulgado hoje, a Human Rights Watch diz que o Estado judaico não distingue os civis de alvos militares. Será que perante esta notícia devemos encolher os ombros e refugiarmo-nos atrás da frase "Não podemos ver as coisas só para um lado"? Eu prefiro condenar veemente as forças israelitas pelos massacres diários contra civis. Estão à vista de todos. E aqueles que tentarem analisar este conflito menosprezando este aspecto, estão mais do que preparados para se alistarem no exército do senhor Olmert.
Quem o diz é a Human Rights Watch - catorzedemarco

The Human Rights Watch released a report today saying that the Jewish state do not differentiate between civilian and military aims. Should we neglect this information and hide behind the notion that 'we cannot be one-sided'? I prefer to condemn the Israeli forces for the daily massacres against civilians. Those who try to analyse this conflict without taking this into
account, are ready to be enlisted in Mr. Olmert's army.

Essa eu achei em um site de notícias israelense; olha só que coisa legal gente! Basta entrar no site abaixo e mandar um mensagem para os queridos e injustiçados soldados israelenses que estão lá no front de batalha trucidando crianc... ops terroristas, afinal Israel tem todo o direito e o aval norte-americano para defender seu território, não é verdade? Mas, até aí, nada demais. O mais interessante de tudo isso é que as mensagens chegarão aos soldados embrulhadinhas em inocentes e gordurosas barras de chocolate - não, não se trata aqui de Kinder Ovo.
... e para as crianças do líbano? Bala, uai! - Axioma Orgasmático

This one I found in a Israeli news site; check out how cool it is! You just have to enter into the site below to send a message to the dear and unjusticed Israeli soldiers who are in the battle front killing child... ops terrorists. As we know, Israel has the right and the US support to defend its territory, isn't it true? But til then, nothing uncommon. The interesting of it all is that the messages will arrive packed in inocent chocolate bars -- no, it is not a Kinder Egg in this case.

A passividade dos grandes e poderosos, o silêncio de quem devia pronunciar-se e não o faz, a impotência das Nações Unidas, estabelecem um perigoso paralelismo entre estes acontecimentos e os que levaram à II Guerra Mundial. Infelizmente o Mundo assiste uma vez mais, como outrora, impassível (ou cooperante) enquanto um povo belicista se impõe aos seus vizinhos, matando indscriminadamente civis, hoje com justificações diferentes no conteúdo mas iguais na forma às que foram utilizadas contra si há menos de 1 século
fight - oddworlds

The passivity of the big and powerfull, the silence of the ones who should manifest themselves and don't, the UN impotency, the whole scene ilustrates a dangerous similarity between the present facts and the ones which led to the second World War. It's sad that the world once again watches helplessly (or should we say, colaboratively) while a nation forces its will over its neighbours, killing civilians. The reasons today are different in content, but equal in form to the ones used against the jewish people less than a century ago.

As crianças de Israel aprendem que em seu país há judeus e não judeus, que há um sector judeu e um sector não judeu, que há uma agricultura de judeus e uma agricultura de não judeus, que existem cidades de judeus e cidades de não judeus. Mas quem são os não judeus? Como vivem? Isso não é importante. E os que não são judeus são todos considerados como "árabes". Por exemplo, no livro "Israel - o Homem e o Espaço" (Editora do Centro de Tecnologia da Educação, 2002) pode-se ler no capítulo sobre a população árabe o seguinte: "Dentro deste grupo da população há crentes de diferentes religiões e grupos étnicos diferentes: muçulmanos, cristãos, drusos, beduínos... Mas como a maioria deles são árabes, ao longo desta obra chamaremos este grupo de árabes ou de população árabe...". No mesmo livro escolar, os palestinos são chamados de "trabalhadores estrangeiros" e suas condições de vida são apontadas como "típicas de países subdesenvolvidos". Os palestinos, tanto os que vivem no Estado de Israel como os que vivem nos territórios ocupados não têm rosto, não são considerados como cidadãos, como pessoas modernas, como pessoas com algum trabalho produtivo, intelectual, ou exercendo alguma atividade positiva. Nos livros escolares eles são representados através de imagens estereotipadas e considerados depreciativamente "os árabes de Israel".
Carta de uma mãe israelita - Enquanto e não

The children in Israel learn that in their country there are jews and non-jews, jewish sectors and non-jewish sectors, a jewish agriculture and a non-jewish agriculture, jewish cities and non jewish cities. But who are the non-jews? How do they live? This is not important. And the ones who are not jews are all considered 'arabs'. For example, in the book 'Israel - The Man and the Space' (Educational Technology Center, 2002) you can read in the chapter about arab population the following: 'In this population group there are people from different religions and ethnic groups: muslims, christians, druses, beduines... But as the majority of them are arabs, we will call this group as arabs or arab population from now on in this edition...'. In the same school book, the Palestines are called 'foreign workers' and their life conditions are labeled as 'tipical of underdeveloped countries'. The palestines, either the ones who lives in Israel or the ones who lives in the occupied territories, just don't have faces. They are not considered as citizens, as modern people who could perform any productive or intelectual work. In school books they are represented through stereotyped images and labeled as 'the arabs from Israel'.

There are also those who try to find some balance in the situation, identifying the patterns of relationship that has ruled the region for the last sixty years. From this point of view, it is quite obvious that 'both sides need to ratchet down the rhetoric and rein in their own extremists'.

Não quero criticar os Judeus - alias sempre nutri o mais profundo respeito para com a sua milenar cultura e para com os seus antigos ritos - contudo este conflito preocupa-me e deixa-me desarmado pois…todos tem razão! Todos argumentam com armas, defendem-se com historia e gritam pela pátria. Talvez uma cimeira no céu entre Maomé e Isaac rabin consiga uma solução. Qual seria o dialogo? Mas haverá algum diálogo?
Verdade externa - Elogio à Loucura

I don'twant to criticize the Jews -- as I always had a profound respect for its ancient culture and rites -- but this conflict worries me, leaving me helpless because... both sides have its own reasons! Maybe a summit in heaven between Maomé and Isaac Rabin would bring a solution. What would be the dialogue? Will we have any dialogue?

gostava de não ver na tv essas crianças mortas no sono. gostava que os que as retiram dos escombros não as exibissem como troféus e que as câmaras não as filmassem com deleite. (a mim basta-me saber que crianças morreram. não preciso de as ver. não preciso que, como disse em directo rodrigues dos santos, eles façam 'uma coisa... tiram os corpos e envolvem-nos em mantas e depois abrem as mantas para as câmaras filmarem'). mas gostava ainda mais que não tivessem morrido. e, como morreram, talvez olhar para elas nos centre no essencial. a nós, que não somos do hezbollah.
as crianças de quana - Glória Fácil...

I wish I had not seen those children killed while sleeping on the TV. I wish the ones responsible for the rescue would not show them as trophies, and that the cameras would not shot the scenes with such pleasure. (To me, it is enough to know that the children died. I don't need to see them. I don't need that, as Rodrigues dos Santos told us from the scene, that they 'uncover the bodies for the cameras to film it'). But I wish even more that they had not died, but as they did, maybe watching them can bring us to the essential -- as we are not from Hezbollah.

Não sou anti-americano, anti-semita ou anti-árabe, pois os americanos são necessários como consumidores, os judeus tem seus direitos de sobrevivência e os árabes fazem jus a um território livre de influências.Nem pró, porque os Estados Unidos são confusos quando o dinheiro está no meio das resoluções que deveriam tomar, os Judeus são proprietários históricos da terra em que vivem, mas os árabes também, e os árabes tem o péssimo hábito de invocar ensinamentos religiosos (que nem sempre são reais) quando acham que seja necessário. Mas me aborrece sobretudo aquela vil conduta de jogadas geográficas para conquistar riquezas.
O Líbano e o Dilema - Aqui não, Genésio!

I am not anti-american, anti-semitic, or anti-arab, as the Americans are needed as consumers, the Jews have their right to survival, and Arabs have the right to a territory free from foreign influences. And I am not pro-anything also, as Americans are always confused when money is involved in the decisions they should take, Jews has historical rights to the land where they live, and also do the Arabs, but those have the bad habit of invoking religious principles (not always realistic ones) when they find necessary. But what bothers me more is that vile behaviour of geographical moves in order to conquer others resources.

O General Sharom, que não era nenhuma flor, dificilmente teria executado um plano tão insensato confirmando o velho adágio de que os militares em geral são menos belicistas do que os civis, eles conhecem a o cheiro da pólvora e a dor da bala na carne. Felizmente para a humanidade existem judeus civilizados que estão abominado essa aventura louca. Pena que não sejam a maioria, mas talvez essa guerra aumente seu contingente.
Onde nasceu o Hezbollah - Luis Nassif

Mr. Sharom, who was not what we could call a peacefull man, would hardly have gone into such irrational plan. This confirms the old saying that military people are in general less aggressive than civilians, as they know well the smell of powder and how it feels the pain of a bullet plowed into the flesh. There are many civilized Jews who are against this crazy adventure, and it's a pity that they are not the majority, yet -- maybe this war will have the effect of increasing this group.

One thing seems clear to all those following the conflict from the outside: it's got to stop. If the blogosphere is really influencing the situation as it is being reported, lets hope it is in the direction of a better understanding, by the ones inside the conflict, of what victory really means right now. Let's pray our activated worldwide inteligence has the capability of collectively reaching the conclusion that peace is the answer, and that enough is definitely enough.

Todo exército um dia descobre que existe uma missão que ele é incapaz de resolver. Para a Inglaterra, essa lição se chamou Estados Unidos, em 1779. Para os EUA, Vietnã. Para a URSS, Afeganistão. A IDF contribuiu para aumentar as apostas ao declarar que seu objetivo é a extinção do Hezbollah; agora, qualquer coisa menos que isso será uma vitória para o inimigo. Com sorte, o fim do mito da suprema competência militar israelense poderia sinalizar o início de uma nova rodada de negociações, talvez um pouco menos desiguais. Certo, vai contra toda a história da região até o presente minuto, mas eu preciso achar um jeito de poder dormir à noite.
Curva de Aprendizado - Si hay gobierno...

All armies find out one day that there is a mission which they are incapable of winning. To England the lesson was called United States, in 1779. To the USA, Vietnan. To the USSR, Afeganistan. The IDF helped to raise the bets against itself while declaring that its goal was to extinguish the Hezbollah; now, anything less than this will be a victory to the enemy. If we are lucky, the end of the myth of Israeli supreme military competence could trigger the start of a new round of negotiations, maybe a more balanced one. Ok, this goes against the whole history of the region til now, but I need to find a way to sleep at night.

Há ponderações de todo tipo, lembrando a freqüência fanática com que o Hezbollah atinge Israel, a diferença entre uma democracia parlamentar de tipo ocidental e o terrorismo de facções muçulmanas que nunca se dobrarão a nenhuma proposta de negociação, etc. Discute-se muito a legitimidade da reação israelense ao Hezbollah, se não é legítima, embora possa ser considerada desproporcional. Fala-se dos custos civis em toda guerra, e que houve bombardeios atingindo crianças numa guerra legítima, como a que se fez contra Hitler. Pode ser, pode ser. Fiquei pensando. Mas depois da manchete de hoje na Folha --mísseis israelenses matam 37 crianças-- cheguei a uma conclusão. Pensar demais, nesse caso, atrapalha. Não há como justificar, nada justifica esse massacre. Chega.
quando pensar demais atrapalha - Marcelo Coelho

There are all kids of arguments, remembering the fanatic frequency of Hezbollah's attacks to Israel, the difference between an occidental parliamentary democracy and the muslim terrorism that will never seat to negotiate, etc. People debate about the legitimacy of the Israeli reaction to Hezbollah, although is can be considered disproportional. They talk about civilian costs in all wars, and that there were children killed by bombing in legitimate wars in the past, as in the one against Hitler. It can be, it can be. I started thinking. But after the headlines -- israeli missiles kill 37 children -- I reached a conclusion. Thinking too much, in this case, leads us to confusion. There is no way to justify this. Enough.

Gay Pride Dialogue Generates a Blog-gays-sphere

2006-07-11T06:49:00.000-07:00

The recent weeks have seen several large and diverse crowds gathering in the streets of many cities in Brazil and some other countries. The festivities and celebrations were not painted only with the World Cup colors. The month of June has become also known as the gay pride month, and the pride parades which sent millions of people to the streets are a strong sign that the movement is going mainstream.

The São Paulo pride parade became famous this year as the largest of its kind on the planet, and an event of such magnitude is sure to produce waves of ideas and emotions expressed in accounts, pictures and debates throughout the lusophone blogosphere.

"The 10th annual Sao Paulo Gay Pride Parade gathered 2.4 million people in the skyscraper-lined Avenue Paulista -- the financial heart of Brazil's biggest city. Last year it was 1.8 million. The theme was 'Homophobia is a crime'. But the event has abandoned the speeches and has turned into one of the biggest parties in the city. The protesting banners and cars manifesting creative phrases about the homosexual condition were gone and were replaced by a carnival of techno music, with 'trio eletricos' hanging big displays of its corporate sponsors"
BRASIL: Gay Parade brings 2,4 million people to Avenida Paulista - PortugalGay.pt

"The attendance at the Gay Pride Parade in São Paulo broke a new record on this Saturday. According to the police, the event -- in its 10th annual edition -- gathered 2.5 million. The organizers believe in a bigger number: 3 million."
Gay Parade stablish a new record gathering 2,5 million people in SP - dubaBado!!

"according to her, Mrs. Mainstream Conservative Press, we were 1.8 million in 2005 and were 2 million or 2.5 million in 2006. sometimes, for the same flaccid press organ we were 2 million at one time, 2.5 million at another -- as if 500 thousand gays, lesbians, transgenders, bisexuals, heterosexuals and the many in between them would all disappear and reappear like a blinker, swallowed by a invisible giant closet, and then sent back, to be again abducted."(anti)conception pills: gay parade - Pedro Alexandre Sanches

There are 58 pride parades scheduled to happen this year, only in Brazil. And they are in fact, mainly sponsored by the government. The unusual model has its suporters and detractors.

"The 58 pride parades were some of the projects selected by the Public Contest of GLBT Culture Support of the Cultural Diversity and Identity Secretariat, announced on the 23th. The other 29 selected projects are the publishing of books, producing shows, and movie festivals. São Paulo, for example, will receive money to implement the Out of the Closet University."
Brasil will have 58 gay parades until the end of the year - Agência GLS

"As Cristaldo said in 2004, at the time of the first homosexual parades sponsored with tax-payer money, 'in this incredible country homosexuality is culture. And even more: it has become a state issue. With just a little more we will have a Homobrás, like we have a Petrobrás [the state oil monopoly] -- the homosexuality that is ours'. In the universe of nations, Brazil shines. We were capable of creating the state-recognized gay"
O Gay Estatal - The Tosco Way of Life

"The goverment is giving more than R$ 1 million to gay parades: Resources comes from the Ministry of Health Aids programs, and it doubles 2005's amount for these events, which caused some noise among NGOs, health councils and the Federal Public Ministry. The sponsoring is being criticized by the ones who believe that health money should only be used in the diseases direct combat. Those sectors are not against the public sponsoring of the parades, but they are questioning the use of the Aids Programs resources which, as they say, should be focused exclusively in the aquisition of medicines, preservatives and prevention campaings, among other things."
How much will be given to the 'March for Jesus'? - De tudo um pouco...

From what we could see in the Lusophone blogs, this debate about parades maybe indicative of a deeper cultural clash. There are two opposing tribes that almost met on the same avenue in São Paulo this year -- the gays and the evangelicals. The mainstream media seem to be giving a low profile to both of these cultural movements until now, perhaps because Brazil as a nation contains a strong Catholic influence. This ambivalence has raised protests from both sides who firmly believe they should be the ones to be supported.

"I'm in front of the screen on the faculty computer at 9 on a Saturday morning -- that's where I am now to post on this blog. I know it's been a long time since I did that, and to correct that I am here again to talk about an issue which I and at least 3 million more people (the attendance of São Paulo's pride parade) are interested in: How gays are treated by the media? What gay image is being shown by TV, internet and ad campaigns? This year we had a kiss between two men censored in a Globo soap opera. And this same TV network presents comedy shows that are especially heavy with satire of gays, while the other open TV channels always work with stereotyped images of the classic gay in their programs."
The Gay media - Planeta Junkex

"In 2006, the 'March for Jesus' and the 'Pride Parade' happened on Avenue Paulista within the short span of 2 days. Although being so close in time, their goals and compositions are very distant. While one exalts homosexuality, the other goes for Jesus. One intends that men and women remain in homosexual sin. The other offers hope and the way out, in Jesus, for all sinners.... If the liberal media treated the gay parades the same way they deal with the 'Marches for Jesus', the gay agenda would deservedly be ignored and confined to an insignificant number of mediocre minds."
March for Jesus or Gay Parade: Who is the real victim of prejudice? - Julio Severo

"Oh c'mon... The evangelicals own a party (PL), a TV network (Record), 200 representatives in Congress, and also the Vice President, who is from PL, and they still complain of being 'under represented'? ... ai, ai ... It's clear to me that if I declared myself an evangelical (God help me!) I would suffer much less prejudice than if I would assume the position being a bisexual."
March of Jesus or Gay Parade??? - Elemento BI

We can't forget that we are already well into the vigorous campaign period of the election year in Brazil, and there are not many things happening here without being influenced by and understood in terms of the polarized dispute between Lula and the other candidates.

"It's evident that Lula's government is completely dedicated to attending to the gay militant's interests. Lula himself declared public support for the homosexual movement by saying: 'any way of loving is worthy'. His government has managed to finance directly many of those 'pride' parades all over Brazil. The goal is to break the people's resistance through 'educational' campaigns."
Brazil without Homophobia: what Lula's government is doing to impose homossexualims in Brazil - Julio Severo

"Last week it was the sonic bombing from religions (The Snow Ball Church). Today Florianópolis is hosting the gay parade, named 'First Diversity Parade'. The media from Santa Catarina state has been talking about the event moved by the 'politically correct' ideology. Relativism above all: whatever comes from minorities, particularities, 'quota-ists' or marginals is intrinsically good and lovable in this camping club called Brazil. Universal values? No... this is 'bourgeoisie', 'hetero', 'conservative' talk."
Relativism über alles - *BLOG do TAMBOSI*

Apart from the political dispute, we can still find an interesting mosaic composed by the diverse views posted by the bloggers on how they experience the pride parades and their effectiveness in promoting the gay cause in society.

"Last Sunday (June 18) I was watching the 'Jornal da Tarde' in channel 1, when there was a report of another Gay Parade, this time in México. The report was not showing anything interesting, just images from the parade where you could see eccentric people proudly shouting how gay they were. The reporter summed up by saying that from now to the end of August there will be many more Gay Parades -- in New York, Paris , Madrid, Málaga , Berlin and Lisbon. At the end, the comments at my lunch table were: 'What for?', and in fact I couldn't find a credible reason. What is the reason for thousands of gays and some sympathizing heteros (using the available labels so that all can understand) to gather and parade on the streets? Is it to show they exist? Is it to demand something? I sincerely don't know, but I really think that it is all a case of absolute lack of taste... because the images they present (I hope this is not a planned effect) is that the alternative crowd is composed of eccentrics, irrationals and the promiscuous.... If this is not their aim, they really have to change the strategy.... What about living their ordinary lives without having this need to stupidly showing themselves to the world? I never saw any hetero parade.... And there are plenty of them. Well... here is my rant!"
gay parade - gmc, igo ou simplesmente gonçalo

"Lots of people find this Gay Parade stuff silly and I also sometimes think it is not worth the effort... the parade is full of 'stereotypes': men dressed as women (as if all gays were like that, what is a lie), women on Harley motorcycles and macho appearance (which is also not true)... in fact, the Gay Parade is a big carnival... The 'Folha de SP' newspaper published a poll on Friday showing that many of those present in the Parade are heterosexuals -- that is really cool, a proof that society is opening itself to diversity -- and that many homosexuals are into long time relationships, with kids! That's also cool! People perceive that we are citizens in families and that we deserve respect!"
Today is Gay Parade day - The son I wish to have

"I went there, in the Gay Parade! :}
man, it was hilarious!
they were funny, those drag gren (or something like that, i don't know how to write, it's those men that dress like women, you know?!) i went there just to WATCH, it's OBVIOUS! x)
my God, it's the devil's shame! ;p
but that's it?!
what can we do?!
they are like they want to be! :/
it was just to post something!:p
=@@"
I WENT... - S2 Júlia S2

"I wonder if the gay community, aiming to achieve equal rights with heteros, could go beyond the parades and try to organize less festive manifestations. Besides the Drag Queens, what else appears in the TV, newspapers, etc?! So much work, so much noise, to get 15 seconds on the news, about which nobody gives a damn?! I wonder if society would approach the cause differently if that was the case. As the same sex relationship is normal for the gay people, for heteros it is an abnormality! I am not talking about being accepted by the church (maybe it can change in five centuries), but in civil terms, many countries already accept the union. How was this possible? Was it achieved with parades, whistles, Village People and Drag Queens, or with concrete actions and serious debate?"
Curitiba's GAY Parade - Photo lucidum

With so many parades occurring in different regions of this country of incredible diversity of all kinds, Brazilian bloggers are sometimes posting about radically different contexts while reporting the same issue. It is full of interesting nuances.

"While surfing on the news websites from Porto Velho [in the Amazonian state of Rondonia] my attention was called to the headline of an article about the lack of police forces to guarantee safeness in the gay parade, and when I went to read the note, check out what I saw: 'The Rondonian gays, who were historically always beaten by the state police, tried to make a good neighborhood policy with the force, paying homage to Colonel Angelina Ramirez, the commandant. However, the payback was the disdain from the public service'. It's a transcript of how it is published there."
HEIN? - BANZEIROS

"I think the special moment of insight comes at the end when tourists start to remember they have to pay to get back home, and the young guy remembers that after a week of having fun he will have to go back to his homophobic parents, and the young girl finds out she had not found her twin soul, that the momentous lovers perceive they will never be corresponded in their longing, and that the magic of a whole week of sexual diversity in São Paulo has ended."
Still about the Gay Parade in São Paulo - blog do renato

"It lacked promotion, organization... Besides that, we had everything and the single ones had plenty of mouths to kiss. I kissed a lot but for no advantage, cause we always end up alone. I am and I am not satisfied."
gay parade in Brasilia - Espaço de lucia barbara de freitas

"'When marriage seemed on its way to becoming obsolete, substituted by cohabitation with no bigger meaning, here come the gays to end up with this shameful situation' [Verissimo, writer, March 2004]. In the last twenty years, more than 1.700 homosexuals were murdered in Brazil, according to Bahia's Aids Prevention Support Group (GAPA). In the majority of the cases, the motivation of the murders is homophobia, and this term is used to represent the hate against another sexual orientation."
Gay Parade - Tita Ferreira

"The theme is friendship, and we hope that this slogan will diminish the prejudice and humanize the social relations by creating an environment of friendship in the family, in the work and in the daily life of all homosexuals."
Gay Parade in Bahia - E aí meu Rei?

"two million, 2.5 million, it doesn't matter how many millions. we are millions. millions of differents because they are equal, millions of equals, because they are different. on this day, at least during this day, there won't be big macho men passing by with their big macho cars who will manage to shout those tired and old lines which they bravely belch on the other 364 days of the year, and there won't be any phobic lady to make that mourning face in front of the scene (oh, what an unconceivable scene!) of 'two men kissing'. on this day, the crowd reigns -- and it has all the colors, sexes, forms, flags; all of them, all of them, all of them. on this day the minorities unify themselves in one unique, utopian and temporary majority."
(anti)conception pills: gay parade - Pedro Alexandre Sanches

We could go on quoting these voices and still find lots of different and uniquely valid approaches in this discourse, but I will close the post with a personal insight that seems inspiring to me: I am glad to live in these times where it's finally possible to freely manifest inner feelings, even if they will sound spacey and weird to my neighbor.

Culture and History Triumph Over Nationalism in the World Cup Lusosphere

2006-07-03T13:24:00.000-07:00

As the World Cup heads into its emotion-packed finals, the Lusosphere is still pulsing around the diverse fates of the teams of Portuguese speaking countries. Brazil fell from its high pedestal and the noisy crash of coach Parreira and his fading stars is bouncing through the blogosphere as expected. Portugal's success in advancing to the semi-final, led by the world champion Brazilian coach Luis Felipe (Big Phil) Scolari, has strengthened the connection between the football fans in both countries. This context is bringing up many interesting connections and promoting an otherwise unexpected conversation.

"On Saturday they asked me if I was sad with Brazil's defeat. I will answer here, in a resounding response: NO!!! What I really dislike is Parreira's cowardly and bureaucratic football playing. Parreira has always been this frightened coach. They call this a pragmatic approach. Now I will go for Big Phil. Portugal can even loose, but at least, Scolari will have sweated, shouted, prayed, yelled, spitted, cursed, right there, on the edge of Portugal's glorious field."
Hey Parreira, call Big Phil! - in a day of jupiter, in mars hour - Brazil

"It took me 24 for hours to recover my strengths to write here. What a game. I was worried about seeing Brazil vs. Portugal in the semi-final. Not because I'm afraid to face them but because I'm am Brazilian and wouldn't be able to cheer for Portugal as I've been doing. I must say that, every Brazilian that I know is now cheering for Portugal for 3 obvious reasons: 1) Our historical connection; 2) Deco and Scolari are Brazilians; 3) France is the devil (at least for us Brazilians)"
A night to remember - WorldCupBlog.org

"In the vast outreach of such a small country as ours, a euphoric and energetic feeling is exalted to display our grandeur. Our flag has become known worldwide and we've awakened the sleeping giant inside us -- we who in other times traveled many seas and conquered many lands. There came a man from one of these countries, discovered a little more than 500 years ago, who sailed now to the East as an Admiral and managed to make a huge contribution to us as a nation. He gives interviews, and appears in TV ads... He sells the team's watch!!! All hail to our Big Phil!!!"
Across sailed seas... - Guru Scolari "I Believe"

Brazilians are really passionate about this sport and, after so many years of flying at the top of the rank, losing is always received as an unexpected turn. But this time it seems the defeat came with an extra bitter taste, as if the players had betrayed the national team's tradition in not showing the expected resolve in the quarter-final game with the French. Too bad that it was Zidane and his team mates again, the same ones who managed to paralyze the Brazilians in the 1998 final -- Brazil's last defeat in World Cup competition before this one.

"There are many reasons to criticize the Brazilian team defeated by the French and even to crucify some of the players. But the main reason was always present in all the games of this team in the World Cup -- the players selected for Brazil played as a soulless team, with no heart. It was a team that never fought for the game, never played collectively, never showed itself capable of surpassing the adversities imposed by the game. It was said that Brazil was a team of stars. Wrong. Brazil had its stars, yes, but they never showed a team."
Uma equipe sem alma - De primeira

"Brazil lost simply by being Brazil. Because of Parreira's dumb stubbornness clinging to a failed formation and the self-centeredness of the oldies Cafu and Roberto Carlos in demanding a place in the team, and the waste of leaving on the bench much better players than the 'experienced' stars. I have never seen a team offering the game to the opponent like that. Of all the eliminated teams of the quarter-finals, none deserved defeat more than Brazil."
Shameful defeat - Repolhópolis

"The 'Roberto Carlos adjusting his socks' (that's exactly how it is written) community in Orkut had 3,552 members at 1 pm. At 8 pm it was already 5,204 members and it keeps growing. There are right now 820 communities related to Parreira, and the biggest one is "Parreira Son of a B***!" with 82,106 registered members."
Meanwhile, in Orkut - El blog de los 3 amigos

While Parreira and some of the Brazilian stars of the game are being chastised by their countrymen, on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean there is one Brazilian who gathers unanimous praise from the Lusophone blogosphere. We are talking about the only coach in FIFA World Cup history to chalk up eight consecutive wins in final rounds -- Luis Felipe (Big Phil) Scolari. His strong personality creates an intense and passionate relationship with players, press and audiences, and he became famous for his controversial dismissal of idols like Romario (Brazil, 2002) and Vitor Baia (Portugal , 2006). History has proved him right until now.

"All of you know how I criticized, among others, the two names on the title for this post (Ricardo and Scolari). I still believe that Scolari is not the best coach for Portugal, and I still have no doubt that Ricardo is not the best Portuguese goal keeper. But when facts are stronger than arguments, we have to admit -- and that's what I am doing -- offer our hand for a spanking because I was wrong. My only salvation is to admit that these two (and another one I also criticized) are the ones responsible for Portugal being in a World Cup semi-final for the second time, and I must confess that I am already suffering for a team about which I was totally indifferent a while ago."
RICARDO and SCOLARI - AFINS DO CALVÁRIO

"It is time to say: enough of moral victories! However, feeling that I can't ask more from this team, there is a faith that we can demand the Moon and they will bring it on a tray! With Scolari, there are no more failed strategies, calculations or bad luck. Has the man got luck? That's exactly what we needed, as good players were always present. We could use many arguments, but the one that gets my attention is the fact that, when a player is not playing so well, or when we get a red card, the others compensate with 5 or 10% more... and the results are there for all to see! Sacrifice, warrior spirit, limitless courage... behold Scolari's Selection, my selection!"
Scolari, ou the old cotton story... - Footbal's Tribunal

"The 'Globo Network' produced an interesting piece where Portugal's coach Luiz Felipe Scolari is the protagonist. The TV network hired a team of [deaf] lip-reading specialists to read Scolari's words during the matches with Holland and England. The result is a report where you hear Scolari's instructions to the Portuguese players during the decisive matches which sent the National team to the World Cup semi-finals. There are also the coach's known pleas for divine help. Watch Scolari in action here (video revealing Scolari comments on the bench)"
Scolari suffers on the bench - Mungu ni Upendo!

Portugal has entered into the acute stage of the World Cup fever. It's a time when all the ordinary matters of life can justifiably be postponed, and nothing is as important as this uplifting sensation of being superior in the football culture. Interestingly, it's also the perfect occasion for politicians to push their not so popular agendas.

"While nothing seems to happen in the country, an important governmental reform occurred, where the only politically autonomous minister went away; it seems that the Portuguese holiday starts to reveal the crisis (half way for the Revolution); the agro-cultivators will be allowed to build houses in areas classified as National Ecological Reserve (you will see the number of agro-cultivators growing...); in Bolivia the plan inclined to lead Latin America into disgrace is being continued and in Palestine things are as we know, etc. There is truthfully nothing that can divert our attention from what's important."
Reading, Watching, Listening, Atoms and Bits of 03/07/06 - Abrupto

"If Portugal goes to the World Cup final on Sunday, it will be necessary to follow Prime Minister José Sócrates closely... we can't let him do another political reconstruction. With the football’s drunkenness -- here comes the comment to the taxi driver of the day -- the government can take advantage and do some wrong. However, if Portugal loose, here we will come back to the crying. Before the hangover, it will be the government and José Sócrates to take the beating... (Second comment to the taxi driver of the day...)"
Política e futebol - comentário "à taxista" - Easy Glory

The quarter-final battle between Portugal and England was heated enough to generate waves of unfriendly conversation in Portuguese blogs. The sending off of Rooney became a questioned event by English commentators and his tense interaction with his Manchester United teammate Cristiano Ronaldo figured in mainstream media as well. Citizen media is ready to filter the nuanced coverage and paint the picture with passionate national colors.

"The British has created a site (I hate Ronaldo) where they crucify Cristiano Ronaldo. I think there are good conditions for C. Ronaldo to leave for the second best club in the world: Real Madrid. Alternatively, he can join Deco on the third best club in the world, Barcelona. In the best club in the world, the FCP [Futebol Clube do Porto], the place is taken by Quaresma, and it would not make sense to send Ronaldo to the bench."
Cristiano Ronaldo no Real Madrid? - Letras com Garfos

"The lack of objectivity and balance presented by the British press in relation to the game with Portugal, as had happened with Portuguese press in the game with Holland, is one more proof of an evident conclusion: there is no objective sports journalism. There are cheer leaders who write in newspapers and make comments on TV. A strong hypothesis would be that there are news purveyors who write what readers want to read. If this is not felt clearly in national tournaments, it is because there are audiences with clashing opinions. When it comes to the national teams the partiality, which comes close to the stupidity, seems to be written in the ethical code."
Sports Journalism? - Arrastão

"It's fundamental for me to do the exercise of comparative journalism. If this is important among a nation's newspapers, when we speak of the news about different countries it becomes even more important. It amplifies and reveals the points of view on an issue, as is the case of the game between England and Portugal reported by the newspapers yesterday. If 'O Público' elects the goal keeper Ricardo who defended the penalties to the position of hero, to 'The Observer' Rooney is the villain, because his dismissal reduced the British team to 10 players. In my modest and probably very ignorant perspective, the game was decided on the penalties, truly game of luck. Therefore, I stay in doubt about the true reach of this news reporting that appears in the headlines of the referred newspapers."
Two angles of view - Cultural Industries

The whole lusophone blogosphere is gathering now around the Portuguese fate in this World Cup. We are all supporting the 'tugas' and Big Phil in these final steps towards the great conquest. In revealing the emotions exacerbated by sport-induced nationalism, the cultural bond surfaces as vivid prose details the connections laced with history.

"From the first World Cup in Uruguay, in 1930... Portugal took 36 years to participate for the first time in 1966, managed by the Brazilian coach Otto Gloria... 76 years later -- from 1930 to 2006 -- and another Brazilian, Big Phil, takes Portugal to another World Cup with their heads held high due to the discipline that these Brazilians had imposed on the Portuguese. But the Brazilian national team did not manage to do it in 2006 with Carlos Parreira and his own superstar players and this is why they were eliminated by France. With more than 50% of African blood in its own team, the same as Brazil... Africa is always winning... Even the best Portuguese player of all times [Eusebio] is... African... [in this case, son of an Angolan -- Malangine -- with a Mozambiquean -- Ronga from Maputo]"
Luso football account - Pululu - Angola

"I was almost fainting of emotion! I was sad about Brazil's defeat! From Timor I received many messages in my cell phone, and here are two from very special friends: (1) Congratulations, my brother! Congratulations, Portugal! Always Portugal ! (Verdial e Cirilo, Cromos). (2) Congratulations Portugal! Even being here in a difficult situation, we are now chanting Portugal victory on the streets of Dili! (Deny). I am convinced that the Portuguese dedicate this victory also to you!"
We Won! - Pantalassa - East Timor

"The Portuguese and the Brazilians hope that Felipão will be sending the French home, defeating King Zidane as in the sixteenth century, when D. Sebastião the king of Portugal died in Alcacer Quibir battle in 1578 in Africa, and was succeeded by Felipe II, from Spain. Then Sebastianism started. It was a messianic movement later stimulated further by Father Vieira and formed by Portuguese who would deny D. Sebastião's death and would stay waiting for his return to the throne, now occupied by a foreigner. Today, the Brazilian Felipe is accepted by the Portuguese and seen by as the only one who can vindicate them from the three World Cup defeats to the French in 1986, 1998 and 2006. D. Sebastião has not come back until today."
Felipism - Juca Kfouri's Blog

In Brazil right now, with the World Cup dream ended, the country is heading to important elections in October. But the lessons learned from the defeat in Germany are still reverberating in the networked conversation, and some creative gems of analogy can be seen in the transition of the issues.

"There are clear similarities between Parreira and the government's economic management and also in the tentative theoretical rhetoric about ordinary aspects of life, in order to rationalize its own absence of courage to take stands. The first common denominator between Parreira and successive government economic teams is the inability of adapting tactical principles to reality. The second, closely related to the first, is the predominance of inertia, the fear of taking the risks of change. Amplifying this, we have the third: pressure from sponsors and/or future hirers and the sport artifacts industry and marketers who add an additional dose of inertia to the game. It is not clear what 'hedge' is used by a Nike against the risk of some of its sponsored ones not being chosen to play but those who have it -- have it. The fourth commonality is to use irrelevant victories to justify the maintenance of the status quo model. A close victory against unimpressive opponents, as much as an irrelevant growth in the GDP are good justifications for non-action. The fifth similarity is the absence of the political agent, capable of stimulating the 'animal spirit' -- in the economy to inspire the entrepreneurs to invest and, in the case of Parreira, to make the players play. Big Phil for President!"
Os cabeças de chuteira, por Luis Nassif - HyBrasil

Força Portugal!!!

Lusosphere blogs report the latest political twists in East Timor

2006-06-26T18:44:00.000-07:00

Since the last report from the lusophone blogosphere, the crisis in East Timor has evolved with the country now divided between the President Xanana Gusmão and the Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri. Once again, reading about the situation in the Anglophone media tells a quite different story from what appears in Portuguese language blogs. There is quite a gap between the two perspectives.

"Australian media news, which influences all the regional and international information on the issue, describes Timor crisis as an internal fight for power where an 'unpopular' prime minister is opposed by a popular movement. Although the words 'oil' and 'gas' are the cause of the Australian intervention, they are rarely mentioned in these news reports."
East Timor: a new cold war - Informação Alternativa

"The Australians use Ad Hominem arguments in the attacks on Timor's government. In this article published in Australian News -- owned by Rupert Murdoch (see wikipedia) -- the writer, a neoliberal (as only a neoliberal journalist would be tolerated by Murdoch), demonizes the Timor government using the strategy of using leftist labels. Marxist leaders have failed: it's the 'label' (homophobic, fascist, Marxist, etc.) The labeling marginalizes the opposition and avoids better reasoning. As we know, Marxism has not guided the Fretilin party of the Prime Minister for years. But the author resurrects the late 70's ideological language with obvious intentions."
Timor: hearing the Australian version - Letras com Garfos

"The history of the struggle for independence of East Timor is also a narrative about the Australian political acrobatics in trying to put its hands in the vast amount of oil in the surrounding seas, currently evaluated as worth 30 billion dollars. Nevertheless, Australia always made its support of Timorese independence appear as a humanitarian mission of fostering and protecting 'human rights'. Today, the media still echoes this storyline."
East Timor: Australia - Peacekeeper or Petroleum Predator? - Expresso Online

The absence of cross-language reports in traditional media may be the reason for the gap in perspective and in understanding of what's going on. There is a great chasm between what is reported in English and what is appearing in Portuguese. It's the passion for blogging about the East Timor crisis in the Lusosphere that is amplifying and expanding awareness of the many sides of the conflict and bringing the gaps in interpretation within the different language spheres into high visibility.

Last week, President Xanana Gusmao's formal request to Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri to resign was the expected movement in response to the unrest. But the fact that the decision was announced as being triggered by an Australian media piece came as a very interesting political spice in the debate in the blogosphere.

"Xanana decided that Alkatiri could not stay in power based on this documentary (via Pantalassa). 'Alkatiri is a terrorist, a communist and a Muslim'. That's how the well informed Australian journalist describes the ousted prime minister. That's how she defines the credibility of his work. The President's use of this piece of political propaganda to bring down a prime minister defines his absolute political irresponsibility."
A terrorist, a communist and a Muslim - Arrastão

"If more proof is needed for us to perceive the meaning of last week developments in Timor, the political pearl is the letter Xanana Gusmao sent to his Prime Minister, printed in the newspapers today. The East Timor President talks about an ABC TV program -- North American, not the Australian network -- which supports the thesis that Alkatiri was preparing a counter-revolution. While sending this video as an attached file, Xanana warns of the request for Alkatiri's resignation. It also says that if he fails to step down, he will be fired after the State Council meeting, which comes as a formality as the decision is already taken and delivered to all news outlets in the world. In a two paragraph letter, the political ridiculousness achieves astounding dimensions."
A country at play - DiárioDigital

The networked conversation is becoming wider and involving more influential actors. The Portuguese deputy Ana Gomes, who is well known for her activism in favor of East Timor's independence and who is President Xanana's close friend, has been posting about the unrest on the blog Causa Nossa. As we would expect, her blogging attracts heated conversations.

"'Mr. President: do not resign. Fire him!' This is what I'll send in a sms to President Xanana! Interference in internal affairs is what they will accuse me of. But I am not the government; I am a deputy, a Portuguese citizen and a friend East Timor. I worked a lot to see the Timorese people free and independent and I am not going to passively watch a bunch of totalitarian idiots leading the country to chaos again. I 'interfered' a lot in the past, and have no regrets. It's important that we understand in Portugal that Mari Alkatiri has not yet gathered the thousands of Fretilin protesters which he says he is controlling to avoid more unrest -- because he doesn't have them."
Mr. President: do not resign. Fire him! - Causa Nossa

"An example of how the 'friends of the East Timor people' can turn out to be their biggest enemies would be right here (Causa Nossa, 25.6.2006). To an already huge fire which is getting out of control, Ana Gomes adds even more gasoline. Instead of calling the parties to a more serene and calm mood, instead of controlling a situation which nobody knows how will end, Ana Gomes does quite the contrary. Ana Gomes -- I'm sorry to have to say as I have personal esteem for her -- seems to be more of Xanana Gusmão's friend than a friend of the East Timor people."
Political Piromania - Bloguítica

As personal connections become more transparent through the flow of narratives, it's inevitable that intimate details of the political characters get picked up by the bloggers radar. This is especially true in this case where the already mentioned cultural gap is replicated in the composition of East Timor's first couple.

"A terrible caricature of the Timorese conflict was the interview that Kirsty Sword-Gusmão gave to the Australian radio ABC. Kirsty is Xanana Gusmão's Wife and, as it stands, she doesn't have any institutional legitimacy. Nevertheless, Kirsty feels comfortable playing the President's authorized voice, and she almost fired Mari Alkatiri through the Australian radio microphone.
Kirsty Rules - Diário de Notícias

"The State relations in Timor had already gone down to the lowest level in terms of parochialism when it was broadly perceived that the situation was dependent on the President's domestic life. Now things have gone to the most worrying phase: the common terms with which the institutional relations have been discussed have come from the President's kitchen".
The letter - Mafalda's World

"Yes, Kirsty Sword Gusmão is Australian, so what? Is it that being Australian a sign of being sold to Canberra's darkest interests? What would the Timorese be today without the support of so many dedicated Australian friends whose militancy against their own government's policy helped in East Timor's fight for independence? They helped more than most of the Portuguese, who only in 1999 opened their eyes to our obligations relative to East Timor. Who knows when this Malay discovered East Timor on the map? Will he continue to distill venom against President Xanana and his combative wife?"
Blue Malay, or the color of a venomous beast? - Causa Nossa

In this last post, the Portuguese deputy Ana Gomes fires an open attack on one of the most active bloggers since the start of the crisis, who signs as 'Malai Azul' (Blue Malay). It was interesting how the answer came as a comment in Malai's blog, "Timor-online", and how dangerous is to engage in an open word battle in the blogosphere.

"We all recognize and are thankful for what Mrs Ana Gomes did for East Timor. I recognize and appreciate also her impulsiveness in defending the causes she thinks are fair. But the truth is that Mrs. Ana Gomes never lived and worked in East Timor -- in the country's day-to-day institutional life which is still in development and amongst people who still feel the pain of past traumas. That's why I think she should have been more cautious and avoided rushed conclusions about the character of some Timorese people. It's not appropriate for her to insult Malai Azul the way she did. She has fallen in the same trap she was accusing him of. One more time, it would be much better if everybody would just calm down. This needs to be stressed. I thank the creators of this blog for making available a free space to all those who love and worry about East Timor".From Readers - Timor Online

Following East Timor tags and linksleads us to some interesting historical perspectives brought forth by some highly motivated bloggers. The evaluation of the geo-political and economic importance of this tiny nation is rarely present in the broadcast coverage. Our blog search on the issue brought forth a much more diverse and informative experience.

"East Timor is just one of the countries in the region caught in the crossfire between two powerful strategic competitors: China and the US . Unfortunately for East Timor, it happens to neighbor some of the Pacific's most crucial waterways - most notably the Ombei Wetar Straits, a deep-water trough between the Indian and Pacific Oceans important for submarine passage, that would be a vital sea 'choke point' in any future conflict."
East Timor: A New Cold War - Alternative Information

"Australia's collusion, wrote Professor Roger Clark, a world authority on the law of the sea, 'is like acquiring stuff from a thief … the fact is that they have neither historical, nor legal, nor moral claim to East Timor and its resources.' Beneath them lay a tiny nation then suffering one of the most brutal occupations of the 20th century. Enforced starvation and murder had extinguished a quarter of the population: 180,000 people. Proportionally, this was carnage greater than that in Cambodia under Pol Pot. The United Nations Truth Commission, which has examined more than 1,000 official documents, reported in January that Western governments shared responsibility for the genocide. For its part, Australia trained Indonesia's Gestapo, known as Kopassus, and its politicians and leading journalists frolicked before the dictator Suharto, described by the CIA as a mass murderer."
East Timor: The Coup the World Missed - Resistir.Info

The East Timor crisis is going through a very delicate moment. It seems the country is really divided, and it is wise to suggest calm and the least interference from external actors. It's fair also to hope that the national hero Xanana Gusmão makes the best use of his well known charisma in order to unite the country around its infant institutions. The whole nation has its eyes turned to him right now.

Tomorrow Xanana Gusmão and his counterparts will 'find out', in their State Council, that Mari Alkatiri's resignation leads to the assumption that the government's party has no conditions to continue with an executive formed by the parliament. Tomorrow, Xanana Gusmão will please his customary followers. After the meeting of the State Council -- a consultative and non deliberative board -- he will dissolve the parliament and bring forth a government based on presidential decree until the next elections.
Tomorrow Xanana's supporters will have their prize... - East Timor: Sovereign and Independent State

"The question is not about firing Mari Alkatiri, the person. It is about firing the elected leader of the party because of his responsibility in bringing the country to serious unrest after three years of government. What national alternatives will be created from this situation? Can they go beyond the representation and responsiveness of a political party? If someone is left out of the solution engineered for this moment, we will have a fertile ground for a civil war -- something that is closer than some people imagine and than we in Portugal fictionalize. The arrogant and authoritarian ones are not only in the government. The East Timor problem is like the Brazilian soap-shows: the plot is feverish, agitated, made of traps and counter-traps, gluing our attention to the movement of the characters and creating the perfect disguise for what goes on in the background, in a way that we can't perceive well who is making things happen, who works, who creates business projects, who generates wealth."
Ana Gomes - a shot on the foot - Walker's Exile

East Timor unrest should be closely followed by international observers right now. Thousands of supporters of ousted East Timor Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri gathered outside the capital this morning, cheering wildly, and chanting "Viva Fretilin" and "Viva Alkatiri." Nobody should be predicting the possibility of a particular victory in this politically volatile situation.

"The headlines are madness: 'Timoreses are with Xanana". All of them? The majority? The right answer is 'some' and that might even be many, the ones who are carried by 'trucks and cars to the Timorese capital and have joined the 700 people that have spent the night in front of the government's Palace'. More than that, this journalist can't say and probably can't know."
Reading, watching, hearing, atoms and bits of June 23, 2006 (2ª series) - Abrupto

"Thousands of supporters, more than 15,000 as reported by LUSA, gathered 10 minutes from Dili, in Hera. The protesters went back to Metinaro where they will stay for the night. Alkatiri and Luo'Olo escorted them to Metinaro in order to allow the anti-government protesters to leave the city. The protesters were carrying banners saying 'Viva Alkatiri', Viva a Fretilin', 'we are not a banana republic'. Among the people there were many Katuas, older men and many old combatants."
Fretilin appeared - Timor Online

We will be following the news in Timor, hoping for peace.

Gil and Creative Commons in Brazil

2006-06-24T15:53:00.001-07:00

Launched in April 2004 , Creative Commons BR was the first fully functional regional CC affiliate. Inaugurated in a cooperative effort with FGV law school's Center for Technology & Society (CTS), it has Ronaldo Lemos as its most vibrant executive. Free Culture, Open Business, and Overmundo are some of the new initiatives CC-BR is now participating, and the hosting of iSummit06 is a display of the Brazilian movement's importance in global terms.

It's indeniable the major role of Brazilian Minister of Culture, Gilberto Gil, as a great supporter of the new licenses model in Brazil, and also in the spreading of the noveGltie to the world. As a known musician star, and at the same time being in charge of Brazilian cultural policies guidelines, he's managed to translate the concepts into actions: he colaborated in the developing of the sampling licenses in 2004, participated with a music in the Wired Cd (rip, sample, mash, share) and now his iSummit06 keynote speech about globalism was the first document created with the CC-Office plug-in tool, recently launched in the event.

The partnership between Gilberto Gil and Creative Commons has been a succesfull one, and it is documented in a short video (2004). As we've been hearing: "Anyone in the world would like to jam with Gilberto Gil".

World Cup Cultural Treasures from the Lusosphere

2006-06-18T11:54:00.000-07:00

All three Lusophone countries, Angola, Brazil and Portugal, are still in the contest for the World Cup. As anyone could guess, there is little chance of finding any relevant blogging outside of the World Cup theme in the always diverse Portuguese speaking blogosphere. As the Lusophone citizen media makes its debut covering of the most watched sports event in the world, many kinds of diversity are present in its multifaceted football chronicle.

In fact, blogs can go deeper than would have been thought, mixing in their alchemy a variable blend of national passion, cultural traits and spirited words. The Lusosphere conversations are not only discussing winners and losers but also offering some glimpses of national cultural traits. Pearls arrive even amongst disdain for football's omnipresence in this season.

A woman from Portugal says,

"If everybody knows that blog posts are supposed to be a kind of augmenting / distorting / diminishing mirror of daily life, and if I can't hear about anything else, how to escape this state of trying not to write a post about football? Even when you don't want to talk about football, you talk about it in explaining why you don't want to hear about football. I surrender. So, instantly, it feels nice to say that Ronaldinho has an incredible hairdo. And that Cristiano Ronaldo makes crying faces. I think making pouting lips doesn't raise his virility capital, but it doesn't diminish it either. A good rise in his virility capital would be a goal followed by a strip. The yellow penalty card would be inconsequential. I think I haven't started yet to write about football. João Ricardo is cool and Figo already had a better hair-do. Iran's players have good looks. Maybe Portugal wins the Cup. Maybe to use 'maybe' in this case makes me shamefully unpatriotic. An alternative title for this post is, 'how to use the word football so many times without writing a line about football'."
The Non-Post - The estrogen diaries - Portugal

In Brazil, men are so often asked by women to explain the rules that it has become sort of symbolic:

yep. but I still can't see the point of this off-side rule.
The world cup is ours!!! - Lapse - Brazil

It's pretty much interesting to follow the different colors of the debate in each of the Lusophone countries. The 'Palancas Negras' (Black Antelopes) have earned their first point with a goalless draw against Mexico on Friday. If Angola overcome Iran in Leipzig on Wednesday and if Portugal beat Mexico on the same day, the Africans would reach the final 16. Just dreaming about this possibility is already a great reason for a big party.

"That's it! Our Angola is Winning!!! We were bright and almost scored in the adversary's goal! It came really close! Next week we are going to eat the 'Aiátólákuméni'!!! Our 'lost boundaries' goal-keeper is superb! Now look here, han? This picture I received from my cousin! We went together and he took this photo and took me to his house. I am beautiful, am I not? Well relaxed in a cheering support mood!"
ANGOOOOOLAAA!! - Tropa de Elite - Angola

"It was an excellent result for Angola and we should recognize that, given what they've done. It was a pretty bad result for the Aztecs who had to make great efforts to score. Good luck for some, bad luck for the others. Many thanks to João Ricardo who was probably the 'Man of the Match'."
Mundial de Futebol, Dia 2 - Pululu - Angola

"It was a night of big emotions in Hanover. In 90 minutes, brave Angolan warriors made history in achieving the highest moment ever in the country's football. The giant distance in the rankings - 53 positions - was not enough for the Mexican team to conquer the hero João Ricardo."
Fez-se história! - Encarnados - Portugal

In another Portuguese speaking corner of the world, in the middle of the tense East Timorese conflicts, there are still some who reach for the games in Germany in order to stay connected with some happiness and joy.

RTTL efforts to make available the World Cup games to the football's fans -- who don't have cable TV access -- are lovable. The director said he wanted to contribute some opportunity for diversion to the people in the hard days we live in. With the attacks at various places in the city, not all have TVs. It is not possible to recreate the party of Portugal going to the finals of the 2004 Euro Cup but I am certain that, in the good Timorese manner, those who can't will be joining those who can and everybody will follow the games attentively. Portugal, Angola and Brazil capture the largest degree of sympathy from the Timorese, fans of Ronaldo, Deco, Figo, Pauleta, among others. Speaking for myself, today I froze all my anguishes about the present situation of my Timorese country. I have traded for the anguishes of football as I watch my Portuguese countries play. I suffer, from my balcony -- which is to say, my living room's sofa -- I scream, I get up, get nervous, turn the face... So to say, all those senseless things done by those infected by the ball! And I'll stop here, as I want to follow watching the game. See you tomorrow!
Mundial - Timor 2006 - Timor Leste

After a shaky start with Angola, the Portuguese seem happy with their team. The goal scored by the Brazilian born Deco paved the way to a convincing victory over Iran, guarantying qualification for the second round. As forty years has passed since the last time Portugal played a second round in a World Cup, it seems like the country can hardly contain the enthusiasm anymore.

"'There is no hunger that doesn't end in abundance', as the saying goes. The match between Angola and Portugal was like after the barbeque when they play the married against the single men. Now it was time to see our team playing real competitive football. About the game, we can simply tell that it was 90 minutes of good football."
Portugal 2 - Irão 0 - Ruka's Place - Portugal

Just arriving from the Frankfurt of Portugal vs Iran, I was still digesting Cristiano Ronaldo and his tricks, the pleasure of seeing him running, dancing, being a delicious magic. The Germans tell me he was not efficient, played selfishly, and didn't play for the team. He wasn't efficient? EFFICIENT? If I could have, I would have spit poison along with the word, aiming for the middle of his face. It's obvious that trying to explain to a German that the score is not everything, is like trying to explain global warming to André Azeredo Alves (one of the trolls that took over some of my previous posts. I won't link him because bothers me the fact that he comes to masturbate on the sitemeter).
FDS de Bola - Contemplamento - Portugal

The French referee! Even Camões, without an eye, would do a better job in the game! French are good for berets, ridiculous mustaches, a brush at hand to paint a croissant, aside an abat-jour! Les Petit Miserables!!!
Momentos altos do Portugal x Irão - Sombras da Realidade - Portugal

Brazilians are a special kind of audience in this sport. Even winning the first two games, with no major threat to its favorite status and having been assured a place in the Cup's second round, the team is under heavy scrutiny by the 180 million would-be football coaches. The contest with Australia showed improvement from the first game with Croatia, but for some bloggers the progress was too small to be acknowledged.

"Ronaldo 'the phenomenal one' has managed to prove to the whole world that, ahhhm... huummmm... Well, he proved that he is really fat and playing nothing! If you can't help, please, don't fuck it up! To classify him as 'pathetic' may be too hard... But if you manage to find another name that fits, tell me."
Brasil 2x2 Life - Tom, a very different being

"Now, truthfully, Brazil does not deserve to win, indeed! Ronaldinho and Roberto Carlos stepped on the ball (literally) many times through the game! I don't play any football, but even I would not fall that way. They hardly will go anywhere with a team like that, not to mention the fatty phenomenal one, who can't even find the ball... Football is the biggest national passion, nobody doubts that! The people breathe football, but the best thing is that we work only til 2 pm, as the game starts at 4. I love this World Cup in Germany!!!"
Copa! - Sampafobia

"All right, we are the most likeable, the most amusing, the gladdest, and the most wanted. But this is not a beauty contest. This is the World Cup! We have to play the ball! Ok, we play the ball. In the end of the game we made the accounts and the balance is positive. But... where is the ballet? Where are those plays capable of pulling out smiles and applauses even from of the opposing audience? Ok, we are the best. If the whole world says so, we won't be the ones not believing. Do we believe? I don't know if you do. I do not."
Brasil X Austrália - Branco Leone: a blog with no content

"Brazilians really like to complain. We get bothered with Argentina's smashing victory over the disappointing Serbia and Montenegro team and we get bitter to see the Spanish "Fury" applying a 'chocolate' [big score] over a wiped out Ukraine. Maybe we are the only country in the world who gets disappointed with a victory. Yesterday, according to the journalist Pedro Bial, Australians were doubly revolted after the game: firstly because of the defeat, which was somehow expected, and second because of the dissatisfaction Brazilians showed with their team's victory. I imagine that they thought like, 'by one million kangaroo pouches, what a strange people!'"
Copa: Fala Sério!!! - Lar dos Velhinhos

We've got to mention that, during the weekend, another event was directly influencing the Brazilian mood. One of the dearest Brazilian humorists died in Germany while covering the event for a TV network. Bussunda -- aka Cláudio Besserman Vianna -- meant more to Brazil than anybody would have expected, and it took some time for the whole nation to believe that the phrase 'Bussunda morreu' (Bussunda died) was not one more joke. Sadly, it was not.

"...apart from probably being the most well known TV comedian in the country as part of the Casseta & Planeta crew, he was also a fervent football fan. He did funny commentaries and interview breaks between matches and he wrote many articles for football newspapers, magazines and websites. And, being the heavy-weight of the group, he was the guy who had the task of playing the role of Ronaldo in their TV skits. He also was the 'official' impersonator of Brazil's president Lula."
Comedian Bussunda dies at age 43 - WolrdCupBlog

"It is almost unbelievable, because Bussunda was one of those persons who transcended the human condition to become a spiritual entity -- in this case, a truly national institution of humor!"
O BUSSUNDA MORREU !?!? - VOX LIBRE por Antonio Rayol

"To the competent authorities, Life and Death Department, Heaven, Highs, no address, Bitch-that-birthed-you: We are really mad with this 'sacanagem' [a vulgar term for treachery] with us and especially with him. Yes, the Man, the one who did Ronaldo, Lula, from 'Casseta & Planeta'. You know who we are talking about, Bussunda. We want to know with whose authority you gentlemen take him from us this way, in a flash, offering no chance to him. The man was in Germany, covering the World Cup, happy with his life, playing a little football with the guys and, just like this, with no ceremony you come and finish it all? What the hell are you doing?"
Surita's Relief - Coió online

i bet on ronaldo as the big name in the world cup.
bussunda died.
brazil is playing badly.
argentina is the best team till now.
i am the last one in all contests.
i am in the middle of a stupid diet.
no money at all.
ain't got the student id.
shit... fuck!
funnyless joke - i am saying

It's World Cup season and this time the Internet is playing a big role in the event, as we keep reporting. As new audiences are being conquered, imaginative approaches to the game's influence in society come from unexpected fields and sources. And analysts are now plumbing the Football Fever for cultural and political insights.

Lebanovsky [a coach famous for his statistical method] was remembered by a guy called Franklin Foer in an article in the New Republic. Foer tries to find out what political regime would fit best for a country to win the World Cup. He 'Lebanovskied' a set of historical data and discovered things: communist regimes made up good teams -- but no one ever won a World Cup. Fascism, on the other hand, played greatly in the 30's -- Italy won two Cups, Germany was third in 34 Cup, and Brazil made the third also in 38 (Foer has no problem in calling Getulio Vargas' 'Estado Novo' what it really was). He tries out an explanation, stating that fascism is a regime that demands extreme allegiance to the native land above all, especially when playing in the field, promoting sports and hygiene and generating a good environment for the athlete fostering, but also generating extreme fear of losing. He asks: "What player will want to disappoint a leader who can order the breaking of his legs, or the imprisonment of his grandmother?"
What's the better political regime to win the Cup? - Riverrun
"Perhaps because he is a naturalized American, ex-Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, the foreign affairs strong man in the United States from 1969 to 1977, loves the football game. In an interview with The Wall St. Journal, he tries to decipher the secrets of the most popular sport in the world to his compatriots because apparently football [with a round ball] is not a fever in the US... Kissinger is fascinated by how the game translates in the field the national character of different countries, the limitless joy of Brazil, and the determination of Germany."
Kissinger teaches americans to watch the Cup - Global Life

The Lusophone blogosphere born of countries that give the world great football teams and players now also gives us conversations that are emblematic of cultural traits and national characteristics. Listening to the Lusophone these days, we learn not only about football but also a great deal about the world that we all share.

World Cup: Ronaldos and the blogosphere

2006-06-12T04:56:00.000-07:00

While the Brazilian team waits for its debut in Germany, it's the buzz around the football personalities that fuels the overheated blogosphere. Brazilians love to talk, and now nothing is more important to talk about than the World Cup. While the ball hasn't yet rolled for the champions, the media are already caught by the fever, and a nation of would-be football coaches is meddling with news and analyses in ways that would fit better the gossip columns of the tabloids.

That's especially true for Ronaldo, the player who still gets most of the media attention. From foot blisters to his model girlfriend -- to say nothing of the debate with President Lula about food and drink excesses -- the forward is always on spot in the World Cup non- coverage of football. The blogosphere follows the pattern, and goes beyond.

"The TV coverage insists on showing Ronaldo's foot blisters, the fever, the images of the 'The Phenomenal One' playing the DJ in a night club on his day off, without mentioning the misunderstandings with President Lula"
Facts and gossips on the team - Visual and Verbal Politics

"Lula could have avoided mentioning Ronaldo's fatness in the video conference with the Brazilian team. Perhaps his intention was not clearly stated and emphatic when he said, 'I've met Ronaldo personally and he is skinny, but everybody is saying he is fat....' But it is important to mention the report of André Kfouri about the situation. According to the ESPN journalist present at the conference, Ronaldo was avoiding any hard rejoinder to Lula's remark in his interview. But, as the correspondents kept pressing him, he finally mentioned the President's known friendliness with alcohol. One more time, in the absence of something worth reporting, the press pushes for declarations and stories with zero information value."
A great idiocy - Balipodo.com

"World Cup news flashes, mainly from the national team, torturing us with 'important' notes such as, 'Ronaldo left the hotel to shit and walk. Look there! Now you are seeing an exclusive, he is shitting, shitting... wow! now he is gonna walk... he is walking! we will try an interview... later - in three minutes - an interview with THE PHENOMENAL ONE, telling us how he felt when shitting and walking in Germany."
Am I, Cup? - Dull Life

"The press coverage has gone beyond the concept of 'thorough', becoming repetitive and counterproductive. The main principle seems to be the exhaustion of the national team in a meaningless never-ending exposition. Any idiocy becomes good enough for a news lead as the reporting staff stays glued to the Brazilian players and far from the event's important news. They debate before and after the trainings stating obvious opinions and as a result, the public watches something very close to a live transmission of grass growing."
Unbalanced coverage - Gardenal.org

Ronaldo -- 'The Phenomenal One' -- was the promise in 1994, the victim in 1998, and the hero in 2002. He's been dealing with the media for enough time now, and it seems this relationship is an on-going conversation that works according to its own logic.

While the established media fights for the continuous attention of the public using well worn strategies, the Internet is spontaneously presenting new modes of coverage and the newer idols seem to fit better into these channels. That would be the case of Ronaldinho. The suffix -inho means 'little one' in Portuguese, but he is the great YouTube.com and google video champion.

"It's World Cup time! I've seen about 1000 video clips of Brazilian BAMF Ronaldinho this week. These two are particularly sweet (the second one was most likely made by the Germans)."
Ronaldinho - Behind the Music - Side A

Interestingly, we should note that Ronaldinho has his own blog*, where he reports directly from Germany and his uncle manages the postings, one or more each day. There are also some special reports called, "The never seen Brazil" from YouTube.com. Check out this remarkable video, [youtube.com].
Brazil, the online team - La Biblia y el Calefon
(*) we could not confirm the authenticity of the blog

"Ronaldinho plays in a bunch of Google Videos -- including commercials, (some fake)."
Ronaldinho on Google Video - Google Blogoscoped

When you thought we've had enough of the contest of the Ronaldos, a new sensation from Portugal comes on the scene - the young and attractive Cristiano Ronaldo. Unlike the two Brazilians, C. Ronaldo has already made his début in the World Cup as the Portuguese team played yesterday to a one to nothing victory over Angola. It's plain to see how the local blogosphere quickly responds as soon as the games begin. It is also interesting to notice the greatly increased participation of female bloggers in the football debates depending on the 'cuteness' of the players.

"anyway, i need to announce this! CRISTIANO RONALDO IS SUPER DUPER HOT!!! the dude down there! hahah!! he's uber love!"
Fifa Fever - Burn-Tralala

"I'm in full WORLD CUP MANIA!!!! Nothing gets me pumped up more then sexy men playing around with a small white and black ball."
You can World my Cup - kokopuffs0616

"I was talking with Ivan the Goodies and June Hoo, good friends from college through MSN yesterday evening. I wonder why guys never liked Cristiano Ronaldo. I mean come on laa...give the guy a chance can or not? He's a great player what. Anyways, last night's match between Portugal and Angola, C.Ronaldo was seriously pissed because he tried to score about 3 times but his attempt failed. The last attempt before he was sent out by Luis Felipe the coach, was the time where he got really super pissed. He was stomping his feet so hard. Man, I totally feel you. Maybe if he was not sent out, he would've or might score another goal for Portugal."
Pure Massacre - Life Less Ordinary

It's not clear if it's solely a 'gender reaction' but the male bloggers really do tend to be more critical about the 'looks' of his game.

"C. Ronaldo has showed one more time that he is not made for the national team. The 'cute' center with the left leg shows that he doesn't know how to respect the opponents. The yellow card presented by the referee shows his known dark side, indicating that he won't get rid of his bad fame"
Angola - Salting Poppies

"We saw a Cristiano Ronaldo that would look for the big plasma screens after each time he had the ball to check out how beautiful he was"
Football World Championship - City of Guimaraes

"Cristiano Ronaldo is unbelievable faggy with 3/4-length flared sleeves! Seriously...there is totally room in a World of Tolerance for gay-bashing the shit out of this fancy Dan! He also sulked and threw tantrums like a local business leader's daughter after being snubbed off..."
i drink GRITTY HACK sportsdrink - crude futures

There's going to be a LOT of talk about these Ronaldos during the World Cup, each one having his own set of fans and detractors. The beauty of the blogosphere is that it reveals the great diversity among the many audiences and surprises that few would have expected. Blog coverage is obviously both highly personal and worldly. Such is the nature of an interactively shared global experience.

World Cup Fever

2006-06-04T15:41:00.000-07:00

Temperature is rising. As we enter the World Cup week, ripples are turning into waves and everyone is being caught by the peculiar pulse that cannot be denied. Flags are already waving, and those who were until now unaware about the gathering starts to feel a strong urge to join, or else leave the planet. This year's edition will surely present a new face, or should I say, hundreds of millions of new faces ready to participate directly, as we had never before a so prepared environment for the expanded international networked exchange about the games we have today.

"There are 186 thousand new websites just created for the world cup in Germany in the last few days. The survey was made by Websense."
Web and Copa - Blog do Mesquita

"There will be tens of millions of people around the globe, watching the games at fever pitch during the competition and the internet will provide a valuable outlet for discussion and information. Thousands of blogs will be written, photos of those lucky people at the games will be shared and enquiries to travel companies about the German cities hosting the games will be made."
Metatags and metatarsals: the internet World Cup - Internet Advertising Bureau

"Following the raging popularity of such sites as MySpace.com and Orkut.com in Brazil, Nike executives approached Google with the idea of creating a social-networking site revolving around the world's most popular sport: soccer. Unlike MySpace.com, however, Joga.com will be a community that focuses on one topic and one passion: soccer, or "football," as it is known outside the U.S."
Nike, Google Kick Off Social-Networking Site - From Istanbul To Sand Hill Road

"As for the overall numbers of people expected to watch the World Cup, 28 billion people in aggregate are expected to tune in at some point during the tournament, with 1.2 billion, or 17 percent of the world’s population, tuning in for the July 9 final. The other 83 percent of will be clicking the remote searching in vain for something more interesting than watching 22 men in shorts kick a ball. I wish them well in their existential efforts."
Billions of Eyes on the World Cup - World Cup Blog

Inovative news sites mash-ups, collective blogs, live video streamings, videoblogs, contests, online games, online virtual stadiuns, and many other novelties will be launching at this global stage. All this connectiveness will help making the 2006 edition not only the more pervasive event ever, but also the most immersive globally shared user experience known to date. What about those under the sun who do not care about balls and goals? Blogs are talking about those differences also, making the conversation still possible:

"And from now on, this blog is almost totally devoted to football and the World Cup. As it is the most important competition in the world. It is because it is the World Cup, godammit! And if you don't like football, the problem is yours. Who cares about you?"
# - Call me James - Brazil

"From 9 June to 9 July 2006, you should read the sports section of the newspaper so that you are aware of what is going on regarding the World Cup, and that way you will be able to join in the conversations. If you fail to do this, then you will be looked at in a bad way, or you will be totally ignored. DO NOT complain about not receiving any attention.."
AExtremely important advice and recomendations to wives, girlfriends, fiancés, mothers, sisters, daughters, etc. (all women in general) - Rotten side - Brazil
Full translation available here.

"As everybody should know by now, it will start the most 'macho' event on the planet: the world cup! We have to figure out how ean must behave with his women... I mean, with each ones woman, that's better. Women have a distorted idea about the event. They think we will only watch Brasil's games, but the world cup has 64 games, which makes 96 hours of play, 5.760 minutes. If they complain, tell them that the wolrd cup happens only in four years, and in four years there are 87.600 minutes of soap-opera. This makes a difference, don't you think?"
Futebol - Hrtbreak - Brazil

"Sorry, nation. Forgive me Brazilian people if I dishonour the only honorable position you believe our country stands for... But I hate football, and I don't give a damn if Brasil doesn't make it... Besides, for me it would be better, as my ears would be saved from those hellish fireworks (which, curiously sound like music to me on new year's eve)"
Sorry, ó Brazil! - Ai, ai, ai... enough!!! - Brasil

I believe Brazilian fever at those times is unique, as it is fueled by a long history of spectacular wins and a certain kind of developed pride that gets challenged each time the cup is being disputed. But there are also some deep rivalries that deserves mention, as it is the case with close neibourgh Argentina. Comes as a surprise that this regional sport rivalry is capable of echoing on the other site of the planet, in far away... Bangladesh!

"That's it. Maradona, the greatest argentinian player ever, went beyound all rivalries in agreeing to do the commercial, and the result is this funny ad of a Brazilian national soft-drink. It's obvious that our 'hermanos' must have noticed this in the airwaves, and many must have lost some hours of sleep. After all, Maradona and Pelé are like symbols of a never ending dispute between the two countries. It all turns back to that old line: who is the best? Both are good, but no one can deny our five world titles."
Maradona in Green and Yellow? - Elias' Space

"This commercial has caused big controversy in Argentina, where many has considered a sacrilege to watch Diego with the green-yellow shirt. Even considering that the 'nightmare' made 180 thousand dollars to Maradona, which makes it clear that there is nothing a bunch of green notes cannot pay. And you, dear reader, what is your opinion? I am interested in argentinian comments.
Diego, Hay Diego!! - Hey Dude!

"World Cup favourites Brazil and Argentina are engaged in an unlikely aerial battle in sports-mad Bangladesh as football fever reaches boiling point in the South Asian nation... Skies of cities, towns and villages across the country were this weekend full of Brazilian and Argentine flags as fans displayed loyalty to their favourite teams. So much is the love for the two teams that at Aminbazar, some 30 kilometres (18 miles) west of the capital, more than 10,000 villagers have been divided into two blocks of fans."
Brazil-Argentina battle lines drawn in Bangladesh - Jamaicaobserver.com

"A Bangladeshi cleric has called on Muslims not to fly the flags of any “infidel” nations playing in the World Cup as football fever gripped the sports-mad country... "These acts are un-Islamic"
Daily Times - Pakistan

‘All academic activities of the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology have been suspended till July 14,’ said a spokesman for the state-run institution. About 2,000 students held demonstrations on the campus in the capital, demanding a World Cup vacation for viewing all the matches on television. After watching late night televised matches, it would be impossible to concentrate on studies the following morning, argued graduate student Anisul Huq.
‘World Cup vacation’ in Bangladesh varsity - India e-News

The special aura of immense consequence carried by this peculiar sport modality is being each day more universally acknowledged in the world. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan recently addressed: "As the only sport that is played in every country, and by every race and religion, football is as rare a phenomena in the world as the United Nations," and wished that the same enthusiasm could fuel discussions about the economic development of poor countries, reducing greenhouse gases or combating AIDS. Political scientists recurrently points out this instrumentalization of popular passion, as it is widely known how the sport is used as a tool for populist governments to maintain control over alienated populations.

"The whole society looses with this collective mesmerized staring at the german green fields while other 'balls' are rolling in Brazilian Congress. I try to tell them that if Brazil wins or looses any game in this World Cup, even if the championship escapes at the second half's fortieth minute, my life will still be the same! For no use. I played the paranoid to everybody, the one who doesn't believe in nothing, who has a hopeless cold hart."
Cup, Kitchen, and other balls - What about some cooffe?

"Apart from victories or losses the truth is that for the first time in its history (which has not started to be written because José Eduardo Santos priorized the writing of his party's) Angola is in the World Cup. As if this was not the very thing which Angolans love, making them temporarily forget the suffering, and dry the tear which is always in the corner of the eye waiting for the first chance to roll down through the face."
From one loss to another till the final victory - The Araut - Angola

"The announcement that Omar Bongo (Gabanese President) decided to 'offer' the World Cup to his country's youth was divulged to the world yesterday by Gabonews -- which uncomprehensibly has still not adpted the name Bongonews -- after René Ndemez Obiang, the Minister for Communications had announced exactly in these terms: "The President decided to pay the games' retransmission rights in the name of the whole set of Gabanese TV networks". Some quick hand has already published the information in the President's official website (www.omarbongo.org) , the man who's been governing Gabon for almost 40 years, insisting in the 'offering' formula. Bongo, who had already 'offered' the African Cup games to the Gabanese youth in January, is 'cool': if not for his generosity, only the private TV+ (who paied for the retransmission exclusiveness) could exhibit the games. Bongo, there is only one. Omar, and no one more."
One Bongo - Africandar - Angola

The World Cup economics and demographics somehow shows that globalisation is not a so uniform movement and, in the other hand, it drives corporate and media interests to channel emotions that enlivens national identities. It seems inevitable that political forces will seek to exploit such an overwhelming hype. The event has carried through the years a heavy weight of financial, cultural, and political import, and the amazing thing is that it somehow survives and keeps growing in it's hability to grab attention.

"I am running from the great slaughter. I can't stand no more 'information' about the world cup. I am on the verge of getting crazy with the fans, the fans' opinions, the commentators' comments, the coachs, the ex-players, I am desperate with the country of 'professores marcelos' that suddenly started to appear. Also the 'reports' about the football stars and the showbizz, the wives, the player's girlfriends, the ex-wives and the soon to be girlfriends, the ex-wives and ex-girlfriends of the presidents, or the ex-wives and ex-girlfriends of the ex-presidents"
The people's happiness is no the opiate of everyboty - Daily Writing - Portugal

"Yes, I am not in the plenitude of my mind faculties anymore. It's not normal, but it is stronger than I am. Guessing contests? I already participate in three, and I am forming another group. Not to mention the album with world cup chromes. Or the files in ipod, which now carries thousand of goal narrations (the best is Taffarell defending of Ronald de Boer's penalty in 1998) and world cup themes. There is also different version and variations of the Brazilian national anthem - even in 'forró' beat. I think I am with the ball fever. And I am not seeking cure. Go to hell with everything cause now it's official: football is the most important thing in the world."
Ball Fever - Totally without notion

The first game is next Friday - Germany x Costa Rica. See you there, or here. We are connected anyhow.

East Timor reported by the Lusophone Blogosphere

2006-05-28T05:57:00.000-07:00

As I was writing this report about unrest and possible civil war in East Timor, I found myself in a war with the spell-checker in my word processor which insists that the word LUSOPHONE does not exist. Read on to see what might be embedded in a single word.

Seven years after the end of Indonesian rule -- becoming the newest world nation in May 2002 -- and having gone through what was viewed as a successful nation building and independence process led by the UN, East Timor is once again facing deep unrest. The last weeks since the reported clashes of April 28th have shown escalating violence and by now the Lusophone blogosphere is starting to speculate about the real forces behind the recent events.

"It was almost one o'clock. I turned on the radio, increased the volume and prepared myself for the bad news of the day. I was listening to the last music before the news and I stopped the car in front of the beach... I was prepared... Here they come! Timor, clashes between police and army, dead people, cries for help... Australia was already arriving (thanks to the oil exploration contracts)… Portugal is on the way … ENI is also there, entering through GALP. I can't help thinking that the oil is the real trouble maker, even if this is not the exact case here. That's what I think."
News - A day after...

GALP is the Portuguese oil company which last week lost the oil-gas contract with the government of East Timor. The contract was awarded instead to the Italian ENI as Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri announced the country's first move to explore the oil-and-gas rich off-shore reserves in the Timor Sea. Strange as it is, ENI and GALP are partners, the former owning the majority share of the later, which makes the Portuguese complain about their country being 'gamed as usual' on the bid. It was also last week that José Ramos Horta, the foreign affairs minister, requested help from Australia, New Zealand, Portugal and Malaysia to quell the violence.

"Timor is going through a delicate moment while signing big and important oil exploration international contracts. There are neglected groups and GALP between them. Are we sure those groups are not influencing the present unrest? Australia, who took years to recognize Timor 's oil extraction rights, spent just a few hours to land its troops at Dili airport: "Candid selfless help"!
Civil War in Timor? - The time that will come

"The curious thing of this entire Timorese situation is that as soon as they saw themselves in trouble they called for help from Portugal. When it is time to ask for help paid for with Portuguese funds -- yes, because a hundred National Guards -GNRs and a bunch of GOEs placed in Timor is no free lunch -- we are the ones they look for. But when it comes to the opportunity to sell oil and raise money, they go find someone else. Is the Portuguese government buying this story? Why don't the Timorese ask for 'Canabineri' help? Why don't they ask the Italians to send some free troops to help them? Is it possible that in the end they will pay with oil profits? Or is it just added to the debt?"
GNR to Timor - daily rants

As we dig deeper into the links on East Timor situation the tense atmosphere between the Prime Minister Alkatiri and President Xanana Gusmão becomes evident. The head of the government, who has managed to maintain the majority party's support, is being pushed to resign by the Catholic Church -- the religion of 90% of the Timorese-- and by renegade leaders of the military under the main leadership of Alfredo Reinaldo, a former army lieutenant trained in Australia. They point to the lack of popular support for Alkatiri as the real cause for the outburst of violence. But the blogs are reporting a more complex situation, sometimes indicating how weirdly the mainstream media are dealing with the issue.

"It looks like positions of Mari Alkatiri, with FRTILIN and Timor's legitimate government on his side, and of Xanana Gusmão, always backed by the Church, are not exactly the same. Who is asking for the Portuguese troops? Both did? Both still do? What role will play the Portuguese in case things go sour between the many sides in the conflict? Knowing that the Australians don't like Mari Alkatiri, what will be the role of its numerous troops, given its special economic interests in the territory? Will Portugal support possible Australian moves to diminish the Prime Minister's political and institutional sphere of influence? And what if we don't support such moves?"
Just some doubts - Arrastao

"Ultimately, one of the common issues in Dili is 'the situation' -- the mysterious being which flows in rumors and gossip, sowing discomfort and mistrust in relation to East Timor's future. Well, the April 28th events were bad, and it is clear that the recovery won't be quick, but the times that followed were flooded with sensationalist news about the security issue. Some facts were based in mere rumors, and it was something that brought much confusion to everyone around. So I am leaving a link to a new address that will follow 'the situation' and the facts in East Timor in a special way!"
The situation - Between Dreams

"One source that will not be surprised by Gusmao's power bid is the World Socialist Website. The WSWS, which has established a reputation on the left as an authority on East Timorese affairs, produced an article yesterday which claimed that Australia was backing a bid by Gusmao and Ramos-Horta to depose Alkatiri. Observing that Alfredo Reinaldo, a leader of some of the rebellious soldiers, was trained in Australia and favors the intervention of foreign troops in East Timor , the WSWS argues that the instability of recent weeks has been orchestrated by Canberra in an attempt to bring Alkatiri to his knees. The WSWS argues that Australia wants to get rid of Alkatiri because he has attempted to lessen East Timor's dependence on Canberra, confront John Howard over his country's exploitation of Timor Strait gas and oil reserves, and establish closer economic ties with Europe and China."
Is Xanana Gusmão staging a coup? - Reading the Maps

"Today, the international networks, BBC, CNN, Euronews, continue to show the 'same old' scenes of youths destroying and torching the 'same old' houses already shown yesterday, in a poorly rehearsed portrait, forcing the kids to declare they are doing all this as vengeance. And the BBC news anchor who pushed for those answers is the 'same old' one who interviewed Alkatiri yesterday and insisted that he had 'failed', that he had to resign. Suddenly I recalled having seen this movie repeatedly -- in Bósnia, in Kosovo, in Checheny and wherever else 'they' have interests to preserve with a non-aligned government. 'Regime change' again…. Is it now in the Portuguese social-democracy fashion in order to take the water to the Australian mill? Shame on you, Mr. Gusmão, and all who get aligned with this coup!"
Afternoon comment - Timor Online - Live from Timor

It is true that Mari Alkatiri has done good job on the dealings about the Timor Gap, putting the Australian government on the defensive in the issue. But being the country leading the military intervention in East Timor has put the Australian blogs in step with Prime Minister John Howard and his government's politically colored approaches.

"Just wait for the Left's reaction to Australia's latest East Timor mission. Perhaps some may contend that it is a subtext for Australian neo-colonialism in the region, acting on Washington's orders to secure petroleum assets for Big Oil (and Halliburton, of course)."
Trouble in Timor Leste (again) - Niner Charlie

"More on East Timor's 'sudden rebellion': According to Australian sources, East Timor's long sought independence is in severe jeopardy as a result of collusion between the United States, Australia, Indonesia , and the World Bank under its pro-Indonesian president Paul Wolfowitz. More astounding are reports that Indonesian intelligence has thoroughly penetrated the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS) by using blackmail techniques involving pedophilia and bribes. These techniques have also been used to target former Australian and U.S. ambassadors and other diplomats and military personnel assigned to Indonesia. Wolfowitz is a former U.S. ambassador to Indonesia."
Australian neo-colonialists (operating on behalf of Bush neo-cons) target East Timor's oil, launch a rebellion against East Timor's government - Rebelle Nation

The following piece was written by the son of Ramos Horta as a report to the Asia Times and it may be a good indicator of what is going on right now.

"More significantly, perhaps, Alkatiri has implemented a foreign policy overtly confrontational to the West. His recent decision to hire nearly 500 Cuban doctors after visiting that country, despite strong objections from the US ambassador, was highly controversial and oddly aligned East Timor with the resurgent leftist movement gaining ground in Latin America. Likewise, Alkatiri's bizarre attempt to declare a national day of mourning for Yasser Arafat's death did not endear him to the US or other Western countries. There was also widespread speculation that Alkatiri planned to award a multibillion-dollar gas-pipeline project to PetroChina, an invitation that would have won both the United States' and Australia's ire."
As East Timor Burns, by Loro Horta - Asia Times

It seems, going against Australian interests has put Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri in a difficult situation. Even the decision making Portuguese the official language is now being challenged by the Australian commentators.

"Mari Alkatiri has been a disastrous Prime Minister. He leads the so-called Mozambique clique of Fretilin ideologues. The catastrophic decision to make Portuguese the national language of East Timor perfectly illustrates the dogmatism and unreality of Alkatiri's approach. This decision disfranchised young East Timorese who speak Tetun, Indonesian or English. It entrenched the clique of ageing, dogmatic Marxist-Leninists within Fretilin and exacerbated every division within East Timorese society. And it does nothing to help East Timor earn a living in the international economy."
Dig in to save Timor - theaustralian.news.com.au

In doing the research for this report about the unrest in this tiny nation of the southwest Pacific I discovered the importance of language in shaping narratives and activating the conversations about what is going on. The Lusophone world of Portuguese-speaking bloggers gives a very caring attention about East Timor’s future and not just the violence of the present difficult time.

In the Lusophone blogoshere the conversations seem to go deeper into the crisis motivations and offer more access to East Timor’s day-to-day political dynamic by being closer to the popular, rather than the institutional, culture. Could it be a sign of the relatedness of the language with the locals, plus the possibility of the same code being understood by a culture on the other side of the globe?

The local efforts to respect and enliven the native Tétum language are also interesting, and already there is a wikipedia section on it. Looking at the language structure for the first time I was amazed. Many of spellings of the words were unbelievably similar to the slang and dialect the Brazilian kids are creating in their instant messenger quick typing, mixing phonetic contractions with common spelling errors. This is not the language of separations and defending interests. It is the language of cordiality, conversation and connection.

""I've seen on the TV news that the Timorese government succeeded in the renegotiating the oil quotas rates for Timor Sea. Who was the loser in this? Precisely: Australia -- the one country that has already arrived and is planning a long stay, unless the Timorese are able to show them the contrary. What about Portugal, can we help? I can't tell if it is a good idea to send Portuguese troops, but there are many reasons why Portugal could have a positive role in Timor, if there is good will there and, also, because attacks to the Timorese government reaches us, the lusophones."

"Politicians utilize culture and language to lubricate private and public interests; academic intellectuals fix on nationalist issues which enhance the visibility of cultural power; and the corporate crowd sticks to politicians in order to protect interests that should be more liberally shared. But these are the kinds of protagonists whose inabilities are not capable of stopping the Lusophone expansion, yet. The community of Lusophony is growing in freedom, beyond the all manipulations. It is, afterall, a community of affections and gestures. It was born in the first globalization wave when the Portuguese traveled the unknown seas. One of the consequences was the emergence of a plural and polycentric space of different people, cultures, states, churches and communities, a network of lusophone communities."
The Lusophony, or its absence - Kilumba's Bazonga

As we continue to cover the unrest in East Timor, we will give special attention to the feeds that bring the latest Lusophone perspectives.

Camoes Literature Prize goes to Luandino Vieira

2006-05-22T17:06:00.000-07:00

Luandino Vieira, from Angola, laureated in the 2006 Edition of Camões Prize. The Portuguese language's most prestigious award, the Camoes Prize, was given to the Angolan writer José Luandino Vieira. Born José Vieira Mateus da Graça, in 1935 in Portugal, he moved to Angola with his parents at the age of 3. He became Angolan citizen by his participation on the country's national movement for liberation and choose the name 'Luandino' as an homage to Luanda. His main books are “No antigamente, na vida - estórias”, “Luuanda”, “A Vida verdadeira de Domingos Xavier” and “Nosso Musseque”. It's the second time an Angolan writer is awarded with the Camoes Prize - the first one was Pepetela, in 1997.

Riots in Sao Paulo: Prison cells and cell phones

2006-05-19T05:40:00.000-07:00

One week has passed since the city of Sao Paulo was paralyzed by gang attacks and the blogosphere in Brazil is wildly spinning the many aspects of this unprecedent confrontation. Here, we will present an overview of the various narratives generated from the multifold and multicolored currents flowing through the ever more popular and impassioned personal journaling of Brazilians.

"Sao Paulo, with a population of 17 million and a land mass which spreads over 3,00 square miles is the world’s third largest city and the largest metropolis in South America. This most modern cosmopolitan city in Brazil, has often been compared to New York because of its attraction, which lies in ethic minority communities, upthrusting skyscrapers, and the outstanding cuisines that the city offers. Apart from the outstanding qualities that this city portrays, it is also considered a home to organized crime groups. The vile and evitable drama, which has really turned ugly, sparked up when around 700 members of the PCC [First Command of the Capital] crime gang were moved from a low to a maximum-security prison to minimize the influence they have had over the years on other inmates. The PCC was formed years ago as a gang within the prison walls to protect the rights of prisoners. Today, they have spread immensely outside the prison system and formed organized crime gangs which deal in drugs, kidnapping and armed robbery in most crucial and economically vibrant Brazilian cities."
São Paulo, Brazil on Fire - Negritu.de - Blog

"I believe I imagine civilization as a circle because I've grown up in Sao Paulo. In Rio de Janeiro, for example, there is a close contact between privilege and poverty which does not happen here. From an historical perspective, what differentiates São Paulo is its urban expansion model, which left the poor crowds on the margins of the city. It created a central privileged zone kept orderly by the control of public authorities and a periphery that was invisible. INVISIBLE... Until now!!!! The PCC attacks present a new reality, tearing down the illusion that Sao Paulo was different from other cities. The expansion of the privileged center grew to the poverty zones, crossing to the world beyond the bridge... Sao Paulo is exactly the same as the rest of the country, built upon a brutal inequality which concentrates and does not distribute wealth."
PCC attack's (II) - Jaw of 1984

Video editing by Spyk

A week ago the whole country incredulously watched the images of the biggest Sao Paulo avenues completely empty at 7 pm on a working Monday. The unimaginable shown on TV sparked reactions that reverberated at many levels of the ongoing political conversation. The main character of the present story -- the PCC gang -- immediately jumped right into the debate as another powerful voice to be dealt with. Although the novelty left the media and politicians speechless at first, the blogosphere was quick in identifying and tagging the political motivations in every new fact. One of the main pieces on this level of the debate would be the Statutes of the PCC, which have been referenced in many blogs:

"Article 16 (last one) - most important of all is that nobody will detain our fight because the Command's seed has spread to all prison systems in the state and we have structured ourselves outside also. Although suffering many sacrifices and many irreparable losses, we consolidated our position on the state level and we will surely fulfill our national presence in the long run. In connection with the CV (Red Command) we will start the revolution in the country from inside the prisons. Our military arm will bring terror to the ones in power, the oppressors and tyrants who use Taubaté Annex and Bangu I [high security prisons] in Rio de Janeiro as society's vengeance tool in fabricating monsters"..
PCC's Statute - Nude Moon - Blog

"Is PCC a leftie party? Well, if it is not yet, they've got plans to be, as they will try to elect two representatives in Ocotber. How nice, hum? As if it was not enough for us to deal with the PT [government party] gangs, now we will have a PCC congressional bench."
Is PCC a leftie party? - Resistência

"Who would be interested in so much blood, fear and uncertainty right now? Who are the political beneficiaries of such tragic events? Everybody agrees that the recent events will seriously damage the main opposition candidate presidential campaign - Sao Paulo ex-governor Geraldo Alckmin... Many have already mentioned the PT connections with organized crime and international drug dealers. But, in spite of the extreme gravity of such charges, those denunciations were never looked into in a way that could clarify the facts."
Sao Paulo under attack... from PT? - The Fire Throat

Then the visceral reaction from security forces in Sao Paulo started to be noticed, firstly under the radar, but soon generally acknowledged by the mainstream media and authorities. There were also strong speculations about a possible deal with the PCC as the only explanation for the way the attacks abruptly stopped after a meeting between its main leader, Marcos Camacho (aka Marcola) with his lawyer and three São Paulo government authorities on Sunday night.

"Attention please, friends!! I am asking everybody following this blog to help stop what is going on right now. The civil and military police, wounded by the PCC killings, are generating a Nazi-like state in our periphery. There are already more than 100 murdered 'suspects' and none of them are from PCC. I already have four dead colleagues, not to mention the ones in the hospital. None of them had any previous filings with the police and that's why I beg you to spread the word. People are dying with bullets in the back while delivering pizza, while going back home from work. The cowardly police tremble in front of real thieves but they are ready to kill someone who is simply going back home from work. It is a shame and, if they call this 'duty', it's time for us to react with concerned citizenship, showing them that we do not want this slaughter. MARTIAL LAW FOR INNOCENT POOR PERSONS DECREED."
Attention - Ferrez

"This is what some policemen are doing in the periphery, in the poor neighborhoods in which they also live, where the abandonment of the law is more radical and more rooted than in the central areas of the city. In those dark alleys the police fulfill their vengeance by shooting the pizza boy, or the guy waiting for his fiancé in the bus station, or the unaware group of friends that chats in some dark crossing. Or even the motoboy who was fleeing frightened -- who told him to run? He must have done something... Are these policemen aware that this truculent and arbitrary behavior contributes to and builds the prestige of the big gang leaders, who become the only alternative for protection in these communities?"
A voice of sanity - The dead

I am very afraid of this [killing of anonymous 'suspects']. I am more afraid of this than of any PCC, in any part of the world.
Urban Guerrilla / Dead in Battle - Nothing Simple is Ever Easy - Deinha in NY

"The order to stop the riots came from Marcola during the night of the meeting through a note which read: 'We are making everybody aware that the facilities (prisons) under our control will be normalized at 9:00 am tomorrow, when our brothers (leaders) will be taking their sun bath in Venceslau (high security prison).' Although the PCC leaders stayed in their cells without sun baths, the rebels obeyed and ended the biggest simultaneous prison rebellion in the country, which included 73 prisons in Sao Paulo state. On Monday at 4 pm there were still 20 prisons out of control and at 8 pm they were all at peace -- a strong indicator that the deal really happened".
Governor dealt with the bandits - President Lula's Friends

If there is one thing that was crystal clear to all in the aftermath of the riots is that PCC's power arises from its communication capabilities from within the prisons. The issue became spicier when a TV network showed what is supposed to be a cell phone interview with someone who presented himself as the PCC leader, Marcola, on Wednesday night. State authorities asserted that the interview was false and that it would be impossible for Marcola to talk to anybody as he is incommunicable in a high security jail.

Following the wave of unprecedented violence over the weekend in São Paulo - coordinated by inmates from inside the jails with their cell phones - the Brazilian mobile operators are under pressure by the government to block signals in prisons, reported Cellular News. Meanwhile, in a related article, the BBC, reports on "a row which has broken out over an interview which a journalist says he got with a gang leader - via mobile phone from a maximum security jail".
Interview of PCC leader from jail by mobile phone - textually.org

"Marcola demonstrated great capability for communication and media manipulation on Wednesday night, when he gave a cell phone interview to the Bandeirantes TV network. Besides presumably overriding the closed Differentiated Disciplinar Regime [high security restrictions] in which he is imprisoned, he portrayed himself as defending the society, saying that the police are putting the population at risk by promoting a war to respond to PCC movements, "in a war where both parties have great fire power, the citizen who has nothing to do with both parties will loose". Marcola said that the PCC attacks were a reaction to the bad treatment in prisons."
Tropical Mob - Option Journal

It has been a tense week in Brazil. Everything started to feel and look quite different from what we used to expect as 'normal'. São Paulo was so paralyzed by fear of the PCC's attacks that few noticed the official announcement of the members of the Brazilian soccer team that will play the World Cup in Germany. And the weekend brought a surprising interview with Sao Paulo 's governor Claudio Lembo -- of the conservative opposition party PFL. His words sounded like a leftist manifesto. He was clearly pissed by his abandonment by those having a direct interest in his success. -- the ex-governor and presidential candidate Geraldo Alckmin and the ex-mayor of the attacked city of São Paulo and now gubernatorial candidate, José Serra.

"Brazil is a country of many defeats, social defeats. We have an evil bourgeois, a very perverse white minority. Their wallets will have to be opened to eradicate misery, to help to create more jobs, more education, more dialogue and equal opportunities for all. If we don't deal with the Brazilian mentality --especially of the white minority -- we won't go anywhere."
Cladio Lembo interview with Monica Bergamo, in Received by E-mail - blogless

When asked if his allies had supported him during the tense days, Claudio Lembo answered that Alckmin had called twice -- "you know, phone calls are expensive". Serra didn't call and neither did former president and main opposition leader Fernando Henrique, "he was in New York". "President Lula called, and was very elegant with me. I talked a lot with the President and he gave me a lot of support".

These days of chaos and violence in Brazil have revealed technology as a multi-edged sword. Demons as well as Saviors can be unleashed through the expansion of something as simple as a cell phone conversation. When long-standing grievances and inequities are combined with the new tools of communication and as people who have never talked to each other before hurl their passions at one another, and trigger each other into action, we who struggle for open systems will be challenged to create and make firm a commons that is both democratic and civil.

Brazilian Gangs Wage War On Police

2006-05-15T11:12:00.000-07:00

One of Brazil's biggest gangs, the First Capital Command (of First Command of the Capital -- PCC), took the fight to Sao Paulo's government developing a wave of co-ordinated violence since Friday. The heavily armed gang staged 150 attacks on police stations that killed 74 (including at least 40 policemen) and 24 prison uprisings that are currently holding thousands of visitors hostage. Overnight, gangs torched buses, targeted banks and continued their attacks on police patrols and stations. So far, the government has only been able to contain six of the prison uprisings, but that more are occurring as fast as they put them down. The violence -- apparently sparked in reaction to the transfer of 765 gang members from their current prisons to higher-security facilities -- is an escalation of what many in Sao Paulo are calling a war between the state authorities and the First Command of the Capital (PCC) criminal faction.

Bruna Little Surfer: blog turns into book, call girl turns into writer

2006-05-13T22:30:00.000-07:00

Bruna Little Surfer is how she is now known. Rachel Pacheco, the Brazilian blogger, became a celebrity while posting details about her job as a call girl in her online diary which was then published in book form as, “The Scorpion’s Sweet Poison” (PDF available in Portuguese). Recently, Larry Rohter reported in the NY Times that her writing is responsible for “upending convention and setting off a vigorous debate about sexual values and practices, revealing a country that is not always as uninhibited as the world often assumes.” This may be true, and it has been echoed by some of the blogs around. But it only touches across the surface and misses the deeper meaning of the conversations that are being stimulated in Brazil.

“Bear in mind, of course, that Brazil is itself a land of contradictions: an environment filled with religiosity and Catholic iconography, offset by promiscuity, rampant prostitution and an ‘anything goes’ lifestyle among the young. Expect Bruna’s tale to generate widespread interest, both critical and supportive. She may be Brazil’s latest symbol of empowerment, shame and recognition. That stuff is great copy!”
The Real Deal Sells: The Scorpion’s Sweet Poison - Lawyers and Business Executives in the News™

“It’s sad that the New York Times, the most respected newspaper in the world (until then), announced Bruna Surfistinha as a Brazilian ‘cultural phenomenon’. Her merit would be of waking up the country to a debate about sexual practices, which also revealed a society not as liberal as is shown during the carnival. They went to the point of calling her a ’sexual guru’! No pseudo-moralist speeches, please. This whole thing has gone too far.”
Brazilian program for export - Infoblog - Ana Maria Brambilla - Ibest

The mainstream media is emphasizing the “tramp-to-celebrity” phenomenon more than the blogosphere which is providing some very interesting discussion. For example, Pedro Doria, a Brazilian A-list blogger, praises the overall effect of the Internet in making available what before was object of restricted access — in this case, nudity and sex. He helped in the promotion of Bruna with the launching of his own book ‘Eu gosto de uma coisa errada‘ (’I like a wrong thing’) where he reported various cases of people who became famous on the net for disclosing their privacy and exposing their sexual intimacy. His accounts of Bruna Surfistinha and “Swingers, Voyeurs and other Characters in Internet’s Sexual Revolution” were based on posts to the site ‘nomínimo‘. Doria’s theory is that this is an opening with many advantages because moralistic metaphors, that used to bring difficulties in the communication with young people about sexual pleasure and its risks, are being replaced by language that demystifies and promotes real dialogue.

“Friday 28, Bruna Little Surfer is completing 21. She is retiring. The move is being planned, and money is being saved since last year. She sold sex for three years, ten days. The day she left home, fighting with mom, fighting with dad, she was still 17. The next birthday she would complete working in a private club in São Paulo… I found her on GPGuia, an online forum where customers review the call girls performances. Bruna was the champion in votes. It was not her technical skills what they were talking about. She was just sweet. Then I found the blog - it was the first one written by a call girl in Brazil, and she was really good in expressing herself”
The Farewell of Bruna Surfistinha - nominimo

“A Brazilian call girl named Paula Lee (24) is making the headlines in Portugal with her blog containing erotic tales, which she calls sexual therapy. The comparisons between Paula Lee and Raquel Pacheco, or Bruna Little Surfer, are inevitable. She defends herself saying that she followed Bruna’s blog since September, when she wrote her first erotic tale. ‘She is a courageous and firm person and is due great value for demistifying the prostitution world, showing the human side that many would not believe existed.”
Brazilian Erotic Blog Succeeds in Portugal - Terra

From the perspective of Brazilian blogs, Bruna was the first to cross the sexual frontiers experimenting with the social online interaction. Starting with the forums and then the blog, she managed to capture the attention (and the fantasies) of her target public, achieving her initial goal of advertising her services. The fact is that she really likes to write, and carefully kept notes from all the customers she had. When those notes started to be published in the blog a new kind of interaction developed that expanded both the intimacy and the size of the audience. Then came Pedro Doria’s book revealing the novelty to larger audiences and resulting in the publishing of her own book which is having an astounding selling performance. Next came the Spanish language version and the promotional tours. Right now she is having a fine time going from Buenos Aires, Argentina to Montevideu, Uruguay with her boyfriend Pedro.

“I had a good impression of Montevideu, but I would not live there for a single reason: there is no buzz, and no stressing as we have in São Paulo. To someone accustomed to the crazy life, as me, it would be impossible to live in such a clean and calm city. But I plan to come back to Montevideu in order to visit Punta Del Este, stay at Conrad’s and try to get rich at the casino. Before going to the airport we made some shots in a photographic session as I will be on the cover of a well known magazine in Uruguay.”
The day - Bruna Little Surfer’s Diary
“I won’t be stupid and follow some critics who talk about the book as a revelation of secrets about the life of a call girl, as there are no secrets in the ‘world’s oldest profession’. With the hypocracy left behind, we can face the real secret contained in the book. Bruna’s secret is the same as the secret of all moral warriors: it’s the fact that behind a prostitute there is a secret aura that attracts men. It’s exactly with this contradiction that Bruna plays, opposing the family girl who chooses to turn into a call girl with the call girl who chooses to turn back into a family girl. There is the origin of the charming chemistry contained in all those girls who use their bodies as a way of life.”
What is behind Bruna Little Surfer? - Possentisson’s Blog

Any research initiative about society and culture in Brazil today must check out what’s going on about the issue in Orkut — Google’s social networking site. Seventy percent of Orkut members are Brazilians, something around 14 million people. Through a single search on ’surfistinha’ we reached 228 communities, where the main ones are: bruna surfistinha (19,452 members); i read bruna surfistinha’s blog (2,221); bruna surfistinha & pedro (2,136); bruna surfistinha’s ex-customers (939); enough of bruna surfistinha (552); i hate bruna surfistinha (494); bruna surfistinha for president (263) and bruna surfistinha = bad example (55). The contradictions are explicit in the blogs as would be natural — and essential — any time and any place that we talk about human sexuality. Bloggers and social networkers alike offer both praises and condemnations. “She may be cool, but she is certainly a bad example.”

“I left this comment on Bruna Little Surfer’s blog: Congratulations, I didn’t know that being a hooker would make so many waves. Really… you are one of the privileged of this cannibal world, which eats the wrong persons, swallowing their values. You are beautiful, but as any other filthy human being, you take advantage of the wrong things. Put yourself in your place, try to learn from the life you chose, and stop presenting such a bad example saying you like to be a bitch. They are giving too much space to someone that doesn’t have anything to teach us.”
Stop the world!! I want to step out - Débora Domingues - Blog

“Yeah, that’s right. Bruna Little Surfer is now the model for this blog. This girl earned money and reached fame because she is intelligent. She went all by herself, sold sex, made money with that, but as soon as she noticed she could succeed selling her own story, she retired from her previous life and started to invest in her writing career.”
Bruna Surfistinha - Woman on the wheel

What’s really interesting to us is the fact that her story illustrates to a whole generation what can be done with a blog associated with good writing. While the NY Times and traditional editorial writers pontificate about culture and morality and while academics generate new socio-anthropological theses about Bruna Little Surfer and disruptive sexual behaviors, the kids are learning something else. They are learning that the Internet and communicating through writing well are opportunities for success. As we would expect, the kids have a much better understanding about the real meaning of the phenomenon of Bruna Little Surfer.

“Little by little I will be reporting my whole life… like it was a book I always wanted to write. I don’t have so many adventures or crazy stories as Bruna Little Surfer, but there are things that, until today, I was the only one to know. By the way, talking about Little Surfer, I recommend that you read her book… not with horny eyes, but as a father, or like future parents that should learn to observe and understand their kids… in the details.”
Presentation and start of this blog - Neco’s Diary

“I am not Bruna Little Surfer… but now I have my own blog… today the day was calm… my mother was out with Duda to the doctor, and I spent the whole morning online… installed the msn windows live… then I discovered that the msn-plus is not compatible… shit… what can I do? But even then, I loved it… it gave me my own space… I had one before but I couldn’t see the value… now I see… hehehe!!!”
Today I start my journey in my little space!!!!!!! - Barbara Beyonce

These kids are just starting. They are starting just by talking about themselves. They are securing and becoming secure in their own spaces where they can express their truths with passion and skill. They are reaching out and connecting with each other and audiences that contain many possibilities. Some day some of them may change the world or just give us something to laugh or cry about.

Gás boliviano incendeia o debate político no Brasil

2006-05-06T15:30:00.000-07:00

O presidente boliviano, Evo Morales, certamente não deixou o presidente Lula em uma boa posição. Cumprindo promessa de campanha, nacionalizou o petróleo e o gás na Bolívia -- afetando diretamente a Petrobrás, empresa estatal brasileira de prospecção de petróleo. O movimento era esperado, entretanto, a forma como Morales implementou a decisão -- colocando tropas do exército boliviano para ocupar as instalações da empresa brasileira --, e a flagrante influência demonstrada pelo venezuelano Hugo Chavez no processo, colocaram Lula em meio a mais um tiroteio político neste agitado ano de eleições presidenciais. O alvo agora é a política externa de seu governo.

"Nesta última semana, vimos atônitos o exército boliviano, sob o comando do presidento Evo Morales, nacionalizar as instalações da Petrobrás. E tudo isso de armas em punho. Acredito que ficou caracterizada uma grande derrota para os brasileiros, especialmente para o presidente Lula e o ministro das Relações Exteriores Celso Amorim."
Brasil X Bolívia = Lula 0, Evo Morales 10, Hugo Chávez 100 - Daniel Yang Blog

"Estávamos ainda sobre o impacto da auto-suficiência quando o presidente Evo Morales anunciou sua intenção de expropriar a siderúrgica brasileira EBX. Em 1 de maio ele foi adiante e editou o Decreto Supremo nacionalizando todas as operações de hidrocarbonetos (gás e petróleo) de seu país, o que atingiu duramente a Petrobrás. Não contente com isso, num ostensivo e desnecessário uso da força, Morales mandou o Exército ocupar as 53 instalações de gás e petróleo que eram controladas por empresas estrangeiras. Segundo o decreto 28.701, a Petrobrás e demais empresas estrangeiras se tornaram meras operadoras de produção e receberão da Yacimientos Petrolíferos Federales de Bolívia (YPFB) uma remuneração de apenas 18% pelos serviços prestados."
O petróleo é deles - Alerta Total - Blog

Como tem acontecido regularmente, a mídia se empolga com o potencial político de tais fatos e trata de propor a linha do debate, o que posteriormente (alguns minutos depois) é reverberado criticamente pelos blogueiros.

"Hoje andava pela rua e atentei às revistas da banca de jornal. Uma delas, a Istoé, estampava na capa: “Evo Morales, o homem que pode parar o Brasil”. Na ilustração, a foto do aymará colada num bujão de gás do qual sai um pavio em chamas – a cena que precede aquelas explosões de desenho animado. Quanta infelicidade. Primeiro pela inverdade da frase. O gás boliviano responde a uma parte ínfima da matriz energética brasileira, que, todos sabemos, é predominada pela hidroeletricidade. Quando falamos em combustível, a gasolina é campeã – petróleo, portanto, do qual o país é auto-suficiente. Há também um uso relativamente grande do álcool, que vem das nossas próprias e problemáticas lavouras monocultoras."
mídia raivosa - reverso - blog

O debate segue apresentando discursos de coloridos variados, que agregam novas informações oriundas de perspectivas absolutamente diversas, e compõe um mosaico de incontestável riqueza na abordagem do tema.

"Creio que essa decisão do presidente Evo Morales caracteriza um ato de soberania de um governo legítimo e democraticamente eleito. Guardadas as devidas proporções de cada circunstância histórica, nós já fizemos o mesmo ao criar o monopólio estatal do petróleo e a Petrobras nos anos 50. Mas, acho que o governo brasileiro tem que ser firme na defesa de nossos interesses e não admitir processos expropriatórios. É preciso fazer isso de modo racional, sem emocionalismos, mediante um processo de negociação que respeite os legítimos interesses das partes e assegure a continuidade da parceria entre Brasil e Bolívia na questão do gás e do petróleo."
O golpe de marketing de Morales! - Choque de Gestão - Blog

"O Itamarati entende que a Bolívia é um país em situação de quase insolvência. Se o Brasil suspender as importações de gás, quebra. Isto não é do interesse do Brasil, porque parte da indústria do Sudeste e do Sul depende hoje do gás boliviano mas sobretudo porque o Ministério das Relações Exteriores teme que uma crise pior leve o presidente da Bolívia, Evo Morales, a uma radicalização ainda maior. Ele seria jogado nos braços do presidente da Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, que o Brasil tenta moderar."
Petrobrás joga duro com a Bolívia enquanto Lula tenta conter a influência de Hugo Chávez - Vida Global

A reunião entre os 4 presidentes -- Cháves, Morales, Kirchner e Lula -- ocorrida 2 dias após o anúncio boliviano colocou mais lenha (gás?) na fogueira que já ia alta. Chávez passou na Bolívia para dar uma carona a Morales no caminho para Foz do Iguaçu -- local da reunião -- e o clima de cumplicidade dos dois certamente não agradou Lula, que demonstrou visível impaciência com o falatório de Chávez. Entretanto, apesar das dificuldades e das críticas, o presidente brasileiro segue colocando a integração latino-americana como prioridade de sua política externa.

"A reunião dos presidentes da Argentina, Brasil, Bolívia e Venezuela em Porto Iguaçu no Paraná parecia ser o momento certo para o governo brasileiro se manifestar e resolver a situação. Lula se manisfestou, fez pouco caso da crise e deu razão aos bolivianos. Afirmou ainda que o projeto do gasoduto que iniria os quatro países seria uma das opções para previnir qualquer problema proveniente do setor de energia. Fazer mais negócio com argentinos, bolivianos e venezuelanos? Meu Deus! A Argentina reclama de tudo que vem do Brasil, a Bolívia vocês já sabem e a Venezuela... Bom, o problema da Venezuela é Hugo Chavez."
Crise: Brasil x Bolívia - Blog do Noel

"Foram três horas de reunião. Mas muitas serão necessárias para digerir um golpe: o Presidente (do Brasil?) não só foi conivente com a selvageria como a parabenizou. A verdade é que o sr. Lula não tem orgulho. Apunhalado pelas costas numa conspiração em que acreditara dominar, preferiu insistir num ideal romântico de união ultra-mundana. E como o marido traído que aceita as orgias da esposa, implora por um lugar ao sol."
Quem poderá nos defender? - O púlpito conservador - Blog

Noutros tempos, tudo que está acontecendo seria considerado "um crime de lesa-pátria", "entrega do patrimônio público" e o governo seria "entreguista". Nada disso aconteceu. A reação foi um silêncio obsequioso. Espera-se que Evo Morales não resolva invadir o Brasil, sob a alegação de que foi logrado no Tratado de Petrópolis, assinado em 1903, em que a Bolívia vendeu o território do Estado do Acre ao Brasil.
Cuidado com Evo - Idéias ao Vento - Blog

O debate sobre o tema no Brasil seguirá influenciado pelo clima das eleições. A política externa brasileira tem sido reconhecida internacionalmente pela efetividade nas questões de comércio global, e pela influência na mudança da correlação das forças políticas a nível mundial. Lula acredita que é fundamental manter a coerência em sua estratégia externa, e mesmo sob o tiroteio eleitoral, encontra na rede vozes que que respaldam sua posição.

"A Bolívia é o país mais pobre da América do Sul. Foi comandada por sucessivos governos de caráter neo-liberal que entregaram suas riquezas naturais aos estrangeiros com a promessa de desafogar o Estado, trazer recursos externos para o país e melhorar a vida dos bolivianos, o que nunca aconteceu. A Bolívia virou a "casa da mãe Joana" e a Petrobrás, durante o governo FHC, aproveitou para mijar de porta aberta e colocar os pés sobre a mesa da sala. O que Morales fez foi botar ordem na casa. Não mandou a Petrobrás embora. Apenas está mandando ela fechar a porta do banheiro e tirar os pés de cima da mesa."
Crise???? - Blog da Re-eleição

"Qual seria a resposta adequada? Invadir a Bolívia, país em que se vive com 20% da média de renda do brasileiro? Desferir um ataque militar contra uma economia 100 vezes menor? Num mundo dominado pela cupidez e a moral do lucro, a reação brasileira só podia causar estranheza. “Vozes da imprensa dizem o contrário, mas a posição do presidente Lula foi extremamente correta. Reconheceu a soberania da Bolívia e a necessidade de ajuda internacional para aquele país pobre”, diz Hélio Jaguaribe (sociólogo, um dos fundadores do PSDB)."
Críticas tentam conter avanço da união sul-americana - André Barrocal – Carta Maior

Estaremos acompanhando o tema e novas informações poderão ser acrescentadas nos comentários. Fique ligado.

Chegada da TV digital no Brasil ativa a rede

2006-04-25T12:22:00.000-07:00

Quando falamos sobre TV no Brasil o assunto sempre alcança grande repercussão. Trata-se de uma mídia de altíssima penetração e influência no país -- 98% da população acessa pelo menos uma vez na semana (dado: anatel), e a proximidade da Copa do Mundo transforma o eletrodoméstico em ícone da mobilização nacional em torno da seleção de futebol. Pois é neste contexto que aterrissa no Brasil o debate sobre a implementação TV digital, e a rede novamente parece ser o espaço onde a troca de idéias e argumentos acontece da forma mais produtiva.

No país do futebol, quando se quer argumentar de forma eficiente e direta, bons comunicadores recorrem às analogias esportivas. E para dar o 'pontapé inicial' no processo de decisão que lhe parecia urgente, o ministro das comunicações Sr. Hélio Costa, ao apresentar o tema em audiência pública na Câmara dos Deputados em fins de janeiro, não economizou recursos para conseguir uma rápida decisão do presidente Lula:

"Coloquei a bola na marca do pênalti para o presidente. Ele pode chutar e marcar um gol de placa (1), pode chutar devagar e a bola entrar de mansinho (2) ou pode chutar para fora (3)"
Min. Hélio Costa - Audiência sobre TV Digital na Câmara dos Deputados - in Pênalti Digital - Blog Silepse

O ministro, que em sua juventude foi conhecido repórter de uma grande rede de TV no país, tratou de didaticamente formatar a escolha: existem 3 sistemas de TV digital disponíveis no mercado mundial: o japonês (1), o europeu (2) e o americano (3). Em um ano que além de Copa do Mundo temos também eleição presidencial, onde a TV adquire enorme influência no cenário, parecia adequado que as decisões sobre a implantação da TV digital fossem tomadas rapidamente.

"De olho na reeleição e na própria sustentação política imediata, o presidente Lula da Silva vem sofrendo pressões diretas das Organizações Globo para forçar uma escolha, imediata, do modelo de negócio e do padrão tecnológico que vão definir o sistema “brasileiro” de rádio e televisão digital a ser adotado no País."
As intrigas, os interesses, e os dilemas políticos, econômicos, tecnológicos ou culturais do rádio e tevê digital no Brasil - Alerta Total - Blog

"Há vários motivos para crer que essa decisão apressada é um desastre: primeiro, porque ela estará sendo tomada baseada simplesmente em pressões e lobbies, sem um debate amplo com a sociedade e sem a adoção de medidas para beneficiar o interesse público. Segundo, porque ela virá sem qualquer estrutura legal que a “receba”, necessariamente infringindo a arcaica regulação (ou ausência de regulação) que impera na área de radiodifusão. Terceiro, pelo fato de ela não permitir o aproveitamento das pesquisas coordenadas pelo CPqD (Centro de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento em Telecomunicações) e realizadas por consórcios de cerca de 80 universidades e institutos de pesquisa no Brasil."
TV Digital: não chuta que é gol contra, presidente! - Nós Não Vamos Pagar Nada - Blog

A blogosfera tratou de alargar o debate, que à princípio estava restrito a questões tecnológicas ininteligíveis para o grande público. Era necessário identificar e entender quais as oportunidades que se abririam com a chegada do novo padrão de mídia, e também descobrir quem são os atores nesse processo de decisão, e quais seus verdadeiros interesses.

"Raras são as reportagens que tocam na questão principal do tema: a digitalização da TV traz consigo a possibilidade de otimização do uso do espectro eletromagnético de radiodifusão. Ou seja, dependendo das decisões que forem tomadas agora pelo governo, poderemos ter muito mais emissoras de TV em um futuro próximo. É a chance real de diminuir a concentração de propriedade no setor. Hoje, apenas seis redes privadas nacionais dominam o mercado de TV no Brasil."
TV Digital: o que a mídia grande não diz - FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) - Blog

"As redes de TV pressionam o governo pelo padrão japonês (ISDB). Esse modelo privilegia a alta definição e permite que os celulares captem os sinais diretos das antenas de TV sem passar pelas operadoras de celulares. Isso garante que as redes de TV continuem com o monopólio de transmissão.
TV Digital - Pensamento Nômade - Blog

O presidente Lula entendeu o recado. Percebeu que o tema era muito mais complexo e importante do que o discurso inicial de seu ministro fazia parecer, e tratou de convidar mais interlocutores para o debate. Em março o tema já girava em torno de linhas especiais de financiamento oferecidos por bancos japoneses e europeus, e a possibilidade da instalação de fábricas de chips no país passou a ser o fiel da balança na decisão. Recentemente uma comitiva governamental visitou o Japão, assinando um "memorando de intenções" para trabalho conjunto no sistema brasileiro de tv digital -- a questão parecia liquidada. Mas tudo indica que a decisão ainda não foi tomada, e o presidente Lula deverá visitar autoridades da UE nas próximas semanas.

"Segundo a Agência EFE, o governo japonês não ficou muito satisfeito não. A imprensa japonesa publicou reportagens mencionando a frustação do governo do país com o teor do memorando, no qual o Brasil expressa apenas o seu "forte desejo" de adotar o formato de TV digital japonês, sem se comprometer de fato com a adoção. O Japão tinha a esperança de que o Governo brasileiro comunicasse a escolha do padrão de TV digital japonês durante a visita."
TV Digital - Japoneses se dizem frustados com memorando assinado hoje - Circuito - Blog

"O poderoso lobby das empresas européias interessadas em implantar, no Brasil, o padrão de televisão digital DVB (Digital Vídeo Broadcasting) acena com a possibilidade de investir pesado na campanha eleitoral petista, caso saia vencedor. Os franco-italianos acenam com qualquer negócio para tirar da jogada da digitalização do rádio e tevê o também endinheirado lobby japonês defensor do sistema ISDB (Integrated Service Digital Broadcasting), cujos representantes, nos bastidores, também acenam com generosos "investimentos eleitorais".
Lobbies europeu e japonês pela digitalização do rádio e tevê no Brasil acenam com mega ajuda para campanha reeleitoral de Lula - Alerta Total - Blog

Em meio a tudo isso o ministro da cultura, Gilberto Gil, reconhecido mundialmente pela sua defesa do livre acesso ao conhecimento e à cultura, afirma que neste debate 'o que importa é o conteúdo'. Inadvertidamente acabou criando uma situação de conflito no governo ao dar voz às manifestações populares contrárias à condução da implementação da TV digital. Ao proceder uma aula inaugural na UFRJ, entoou a leitura de um cordel (veja no youtube) que entre outras coisas chamou o ministro Hélio Costa de 'empresário boçal', dono de uma 'conversa bosta'. A rede registrou:

"Dentro deste quadro de reações criativas à ditadura nos meios de comunicação, na política e na economia, surgiu também o Cordel da TV Digital, em texto, áudio e vídeo, digno de ser divulgado para a população em geral, tendo em vista sintetizar de forma lúdica e simples um assunto de grande complexidade e relevância, permitindo melhor palatabilidade junto aos nossos 74 % de analfabetos e semi-analfabetos em nosso idioma, bem como aos 20 % de analfabetos políticos plenamente conscientes das possibilidades da flor do Lácio."
SBTVD: O melhor do Brasil é o brasileiro!!! - Ensandecer de um Computólogo - Blog

"A correlação de forças do governo vem sendo bastante ambígua. O ministério das comunicações é, desde o início do governo, uma moeda de troca com partidos da base aliada... Nesta semana o ministro da cultura, Gilberto Gil, leu na inauguração de uma escola de comunicação no Rio de Janeiro um cordel da jornalista pernambucana Luciana Rabelo, que ressalta a importância da ampla discussão com a sociedade, e ataca Hélio Costa."
TV Digital – Entre a democratização da comunicação e a manutenção do latifúndio midiático - Veias Abertas - Blog

"O ministro da Cultura, Gilberto Gil, esclarece que o texto “Brasileiros atenção – O cordel da TV Digital” — lido por ele, ontem (dia 29), durante a aula inaugural para os alunos do curso de Comunicação da UFRJ — não expressa a sua opinião no debate governamental sobre TV Digital. No contexto da aula, o ministro da Cultura falava sobre Democracia e a necessidade de os governantes tratarem as críticas com tranqüilidade, apontando o texto como um dos exemplos das diversas formas de manifestação expressadas pela sociedade em um governo democrático."
Nota de Esclarecimento - Ministério da Cultura

O debate sobre o sistema de tv digital a ser implementado no Brasil segue cooptando cada vez mais adeptos. Uma comunidade do orkut lançou um selo (ao lado) que está se espalhando por sites e blogs, e a maioria já percebeu que a decisão apressada só interessava a quem estava com pressa. Já está claro também que a decisão do modelo tecnológico, embora importante, é apenas o primeiro passo para uma reforma muito mais ampla e profunda, que exigirá a mobilização dos vários setores da sociedade. Uma discussão que toca a distinção básica entre público e privado, a qual vem ganhando a visibilidade necessária graças à rede nossa de cada dia.

"A manutenção do status quo do oligopólio de mídia que controla as comunicações no Brasil não está garantido com a “simples” escolha do ISDB como padrão de modulação da TV digital aberta no Brasil. O que não podemos permitir é que, se esta escolha vier a acontecer, o passo seguinte (o início das transmissões de teste) seja dado. Temos que garantir que qualquer transmissão em digital só seja feita após a aprovação de uma Lei Geral das Comunicações... A principal medida a ser tomada agora é debater com a sociedade o que realmente está envolvido na questão da TV digital. É denunciar à Justiça caso o governo venha a escolher oficialmente o ISDB como padrão de modulação da TV digital brasileira. É impedir qualquer tentativa de criar fatos consumados... Temos que ter uma lei, votada pelos representantes do povo, que diga o que pode e o que não pode ser feito nesta nova mídia que agora se inaugura. Estamos, portanto, longe do fim desta guerra. Com ou sem ISDB."
O fato consumado da TV Digital - Gustavo Gindre - Agência Carta Maior

Política de cotas nas universidades brasileiras: o debate online

2006-04-18T07:13:00.000-07:00

Está em curso no país um debate da maior importância, que avalia a pertinência da política de cotas que vêm sendo implementada em algumas instituições públicas de ensino superior*. A discussão irá esquentar nas proximas semanas, quando deverá ser apreciado pelo congresso o Projeto de Lei nº 3627/2004, que institui Sistema Especial de Reserva de Vagas para estudantes egressos de escolas públicas, em especial negros e indígenas, e regulamentará a discriminação afirmativa como política de estado.

Caso ocorresse há uma década atrás, este debate estaria restrito às próprias universidades e ao congresso, e teria que contar com a boa vontade dos veículos tradicionais de mídia para alcançar a visibilidade necessária. Hoje, através dos foruns e listas de discussão online, sites setoriais e principalmente dos blogs, a rede encumbe-se de aumentar o raio de alcance do diálogo sobre as cotas, e permite que novos e diversos atores sociais manifestem-se de forma efetiva, somando novas perspectivas e iluminando possibilidades antes não imaginadas.

A proposta em debate no congresso obriga as instituições federais de ensino superior e de ensino técnico de nível médio a reservar 50% das vagas para estudantes que tenham cursado integralmente o ensino médio em escolas públicas. Dentro do percentual de 50%, será dada preferência a alunos que se declararem negros ou índios, em uma proporção igual à população de negros, pardos e indígenas levantada no último censo demográfico.

O ambiente digital brasileiro vêm discutindo o tema há algum tempo, e a argumentação apresenta detalhes e nuances que vão além da polarização sobre a pertinência, ou não, das políticas de ação afirmativa. A votação do Projeto de Lei ora em curso, que introduz a ênfase nas cotas socioeconômicas sobre as cotas étnicas, coloca à prova a capacidade da rede em atualizar o público interessado sobre o significado das novas condicionantes na questão. Como esperado, a blogosfera disponibiliza apreciações com variados graus de profundidade e colorido ideológico:

Quem pode pagar pelo ensino de qualidade assim o fará, sempre. É, inclusive, uma forma mais eficiente de fazer o dinheiro circular: quem pode, paga. Não vou discutir sobre fins sociais. De qualquer maneira, vejo uma espécie de vingança oculta, uma coisa meio inconsciente na mente dos defensores das cotas. Algo como se dissessem "vocês nos oprimiram nesses últimos 506 anos e agora nós vamos dar o troco". Tiram dos ricos para dar aos pobres? Isso é injusto, principalmente se lembrarmos que muitos alunos das universidades públicas não são ricos. Esses existem, claro, mas são em número inferior às vagas oferecidas anualmente. Outro ponto a ser considerado é o das cotas nas cotas. Além de separar metade das vagas para os estudantes da escola pública, parte delas será dedicada aos afro-descendentes e índios. Índios?
Cotas: privilégio e realidade - blog 'Segredos de Fátima

O argumento de que o investimento em outros setores da educação evitaria a adoção de cotas nas universidades é extremamente cínico, para não dizer burro. A grande verdade é que há 30, 40 anos atrás, quando o ensino público gratuito era de primeiríssima qualidade, poucos eram os negros que tinham acesso a ele. E mesmo hoje, as melhores escolas públicas tais como Cefet, Pedro II, entre outras, contam com uma freqüência de brancos absoluta. Portanto, é o contrário; temos, sim, que pleitear cotas também nos colégios de aplicação, Pedro II, Cefet etc..
Quem tem medo da cor das cotas? - blog 'Grito Sufocado'

A campanha por cotas para alunos de escolas públicas em universidades públicas é uma campanha que mostra uma solução populista, hipócrita e demagoga para acalmar os ânimos de cidadãos justamente irritados com os problemas da educação. Não vamos fazer a reforma violenta e revolucionária que se mostra mais do que urgente no ensino médio e fundamental público. Vamos adotar uma medida “emergencial” para empurrar o problema para um futuro distante e agradar os eleitores de agora.
Cotas - blog 'The right to be wrong'

O debate muitas vezes se dá diretamente nos comentários, como este abaixo, que comenta o post acima:

Num país de apolitizados e excluídos... onde a maioria vive à margem da sociedade, onde cidadania é palavra estranha... É neste país que você propõe a simples melhora do ensino médio...e enquanto isso os ricos se aproveitam das universidades públicas... Talvez o sistema de cotas seja o único capaz de resolver pelo menos parte do problema...talvez assim o excluído se politize e ganhe força e quem sabe então ele lute por todas as melhoras necessárias...
Comentário de 'Ego Freak' no post Cotas - blog 'The right to be wrong'

Ilustrando outra modalidade de intervenção, muitos blogs conceituados servem como caixa de ressonância para artigos sobre o tema, publicados em variados tipos de site e também na mídia tradicional. Apresentando argumentações mais requintadas, mas sempre em reforço à opinião do blogueiro, tais postagens trazem links, e em muitos casos a íntegra de tais artigos.

O debate sobre as cotas é um debate sobre o Brasil. O que está em pauta são dois projetos de combate ao racismo: um pela via do fortalecimento das identidades “raciais” e, em última análise, do genocídio dos “pardos”, “caboclos”, “morenos”etc.; outro pela via do anti-racismo que procura concentrar esforços na diminuição das diferenças de classe e uma luta contínua contra as representações negativas atribuídas às pessoas mais escuras. Esses projetos também são projetos distintos de nação. Um vislumbra uma nação pautada das diferenças “étnicas/raciais”—isto é uma nação de comunidades. Outro projeto aposta na construção de uma cidadania com direitos em comum independentemente de “raça”, “etnia”, gênero, orientação sexual, etc., salvaguardando o direito de cada individuo a seguir o estilo de vida que mais lhe convém—isto é uma nação de indivíduos. Enfim, argumentamos que não se pode acabar com o racismo com uma política que entroniza a “raça”. Quando o Estado legisla sobre esta matéria ele funda a “raça”, cria justamente aquilo que quer ver destruído. Merecemos melhor solução para os graves problemas que nos assolam.
Peter Fry e Yvonne Maggie sobre cotas nas universidades - Simon's Blog

Quanto à questão étnica é absolutamente necessário que a sociedade republicana brasileira reconheça a discriminação ocorrida desde seus primórdios e proponha soluções efetivas para saldar essa dívida. Porém, soluções no âmbito apenas do acesso ao ensino superior sem estende-las às demais instituições ou espaços de atuação social como forma de criar oportunidades na formação da elite e de participação nos processos decisórios da sociedade brasileira parece incoerência ou simplificação do problema, o que confere aromas de populismo e demagogia. Qual é a justificativa para não estabelecer cotas étnicas para os demais concursos públicos, inclusive para docentes das IFES, as mesmas que aprovaram para os alunos? Por que os demais poderes republicanos estão excluídos das cotas? Como explicar a ausência de cotas raciais na composição do Judiciário. E nos parlamentos, estes sim com a obrigação de representar o perfil da sociedade brasileira.
Artigo de Gustavo Balduino, linkado em 'O Olho Dínamo'

Outra forma interessante de ativar a dinâmica do tema são as reportagens sobre eventos, palestras e debates que estão acontecendo (e também os que não estão), revelando as abordagens e a dinâmica que o tema provoca nas diferentes regiões do país.

O que diferencia boas de más decisões... são as percepções distintas do cenário presente (e as motivações para vê-lo dessa ou dessa forma), sobre o qual se dão tais decisões; e, igualmente, a variação da capacidade em discriminar seus antecedentes. Nesses quesitos, prevaleceram ontem no painel "Debate sobre sistema de cotas étnico-raciais" na UFRGS os defensores do regime de cotas raciais. Como Onir Araújo, defendo não a atual proposta que destina, dentro dos 50% assegurados para egressos de escolas públicas, sub-cotas para negros e índios, mas a aprovação de um sistema de cotas diretas para negros e pardos.
Cotas Raciais e a Democracia Escandalizada - blog 'O Olho Dínamo'

A Rede Globo, no Jornal Nacional, criticou o projeto que regulamenta cotas para alunos do ensino público, bem como para negros e indígenas: os deficientes cívicos. O jornalista dizia que não foi feita uma ampla discussão envolvendo a sociedade e que o imediatismo era eleitoreiro e irresponsável. Como um desastrado partidário da dialética, o Jornal Nacional ouviu duas pessoas: uma antropóloga, contrária ao sistema de cotas, e um deputado do PSB do Espírito Santo – que apareceu pela primeira vez em cadeia nacional –, também contrário às cotas. Qual debate? Ora, eu pergunto, se a Globo realmente tem interesse num debate amplo envolvendo a sociedade, acadêmicos e políticos, por que ela nunca promoveu uma discussão? Por que ela nunca patrocinou um debate no horário do besteirol Big Brother?
Trecho de artigo de Lelê Teles, in Debate de uma nota só - blog 'Cyrano disse'

O debate está animado, e ainda deve esquentar. A dinâmica é arejada e promove também a mudança de opinião, como bem apresentado pelo blogueiro 'Liberal, Libertário, Libertino':

Eu era contra as cotas. Entretanto, depois de seis meses de leituras intensas, já estou revertendo uma posição que sempre tive. A partir de hoje, vou a favor das cotas. Basicamente, o que mudou meu raciocínio foi a seguinte realização: os efeitos nocivos da escravidão continuam afetando os descendentes de suas vítimas diretas. Naturalmente, a política de cotas gera uma série de outros problemas operacionais, que são os descritos no meu post original e também nesse aqui. Intervir num sistema meritocrático que funciona é como introduzir uma nova espécie em um ecossistema complexo: você nunca tem certeza absoluta do que vai acontecer. Basicamente, está se criando uma nova injustiça pra se reparar uma velha injustiça. Quase sempre dá merda. Mas, uma vez decidida a questão filosófica, realmente não há mais opção. Os problemas operacionais a gente senta e resolve, nem que seja por tentativa e erro. Deixem suas objeções operacionais para depois. Por enquanto, me digam porque acham que os afrodescendentes NÃO merecem reparação pela escravidão.
A Favor das Cotas - Liberal, Libertário, Libertino - blog

Vamos acompanhar o tema. Os links aqui disponibilizados já constituem bom roteiro para atualizações, e o convite à participação é quase irrecusável.

(*) Segundo Frei David Santos, do Educafro, 30 universidades em todas as regiões do país já adotam sistema de reservas de vagas. A formatação das cotas varia, atendendo em maior ou menor grau estudantes de escolas públicas, negros e indígenas. Exemplo é a UnB, cuja reserva é de 20% das vagas para estudantes que se autodenominarem negros. Na mesma linha, a Universidade Estadual da Bahia destina 40% das cotas para negros oriundos da rede pública, a Universidade Federal do Pará (UFPA) reserva 50% para alunos da rede pública, sendo 40% para negros, e a Universidade Federal do Paraná (UFPR) coloca 20% de vagas para estudantes de escola pública e 20% para alunos negros.

Novas informações

2006-04-17T14:42:00.000-07:00

Reuters alia-se a rede de bloggers

A REUTERS decidiu aliar-se à Global Voices Online, uma rede de bloggers coordenada pela Universidade de Harvard, para poder ter comentários especializados em ocasiões especiais.

First Contact

2006-04-17T13:48:00.000-07:00

From: David Sasaki

To: josemurilo
Sent: Friday, April 14, 2006 7:13:28 PM
Subject: Global Voices Online and Brazil

Dear Jose Murilo,

Please excuse my ignorance of Portuguese. That is, in fact, exactly
why I'm writing.

I'm the Latin America editor of Global Voices Online http://www.globalvoicesonline.org, the leading aggregator of worldwide weblogs based at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society.

I realize that as the editor of Ecologia Digital and the webmaster of
the Minister of Culture, you are very familiar with Brazil's online
community. We are seeking a Portuguese/English translator for Global
Voices who could write two brief posts each week summarizing what is
happening in the Brazilian blogosphere with translated excerpts from
various bloggers.

An example would be Patrick Hall's post on Marcos Pontes
http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/2006/04/10/brazil-pontes-touches-down/>

Thanks so much!

David

From: Jose Murilo Junior
To: David Sasaki
Date: Apr 17, 2006 5:33 PM
Subject: Fw: Global Voices Online and Brazil

Hello David,

Yes, I am familiar with the Brazilian online community, and I think it would be fun to write posts about the state of our blogosphere for globalvoicesonline. I will start thinking about the first post right now... Is there anything more I should know?

Thanks,
or
Um abraço (a hug - the common brazilian greeting)

Jose Murilo