Brazil outlaws tanning machines

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 13:42:43 +0000

There's no real need to write a story here. The headline says it all.

But because convention must be followed, here goes: On Wednesday, Anvisa, the Brazilian equivalent of the FDA, prohibited the sale and use of tanning machines for aesthetic purposes. The ban is effective immediately, and the Brazilian press reported law-abiding spa owners calling clients to cancel appoints...and non-law-abiding spa owners not calling clients to cancel appointments.

Shrinking the Amazon?

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 15:39:09 +0000

There are some people you look at and think: this guy has a story to tell. That’s the impression I got from the bushily grey-bearded guy in the straw hat taking in the breeze on the commuter boat back from Novo Aripuana to Manaus. It may actually be illegal to have a beard like that and be boring.

The Amazon with back pain, Part II

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 16:53:45 +0000

I’m now back in Novo Aripuana (pictured), where the perfectly decent Hotel Tio Ze does not have perfectly decent beds for back pain sufferers. So, yesterday, with a nap aborted, I decided to take advantage of the two things the town seemed to offer me: a pharmacy, and a massage therapist.

The Amazon, with back pain, Part I

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 23:32:18 +0000

Somehow, woke up this morning with immense pain on the lower right side of my back. It’s the kind that when anything jolts, like you trying to get out of bed, pain shoots through your side.

Back of the boat

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 23:24:05 +0000

I just started on a reporting trip in Amazonas state, so a word on the means of transportation here, which pretty much boils down to ABC: Anything but cars. Highways are few and far between here, both because historically it has been very difficult and expensive to lay down a lasting highway here, and these days, it is considered environmentally hazardous to the land it runs through. I've heard a few different slight variations quoted, but something like 52 out of 62 municipalities in the state cannot be reached by road.

The Rio war

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 14:40:23 +0000

If it had happened three weeks earlier, we might be looking at a 2016 Olympics in Madrid, Chicago or Tokyo, the three candidate cities where a police helicopter was not shot down by drug gangs this weekend.

Tegucigalpa 2009, Rio 2016

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 17:23:59 +0000

There’s only really one story in Brazil these days: whether this country of 190 million is ready for prime time as a major geo-political player. Or perhaps more accurately, how far along is Brazil in its inevitable march toward that status.

Honduras, as seen from Brazil

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 22:43:07 +0000

Brazil is swept up in the drama at its embassy in Honduras, where, as most everyone knows by now, deposed president Manuel Zelaya is holed up after a dramatic and clandestine return to the country he was kicked out of, in his pyjamas, on June 28.

How Much Do I Weigh?

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 22:57:06 +0000

It's pretty easy to be American here. Highfalutin discussions of cultural imperialism and the Monroe Doctrine aside, Brazilians are generally OK with us, at least since we swapped Bush for Obama. Teenagers dream of Disney World, Up is a box-office hit, Doritos are available on every corner, and even those weird cappuccinos they make at Starbucks (what, no chocolate?) are catching on.

Reporters With Guns: Not a Good Time to Be an Innocent Paper Bystander

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 02:56:52 +0000

The Military Police of Sao Paulo, which is a fancy name for what we would call regular police, invited journalists to two-day training this past weekend on what they call the Giraldi Method. That’s a system one Col.

Rejected Alternative: "Wake Up With South America's Biggest Iron Ore Producer"

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 02:50:24 +0000

What do the Bronx and Brazil have in common, besides that I've covered both of them? No matter how far they come, they can't seem to shed those annoying stereotypes the rest of the world pins on them.

Political drama in Brasilia

Thu, 20 Aug 2009 21:45:34 +0000

Since I got back to Brazil on Tuesday, there has been a political whirlwind in the nation's capital. Here's a summary:

Brazil in the News

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 18:30:13 +0000

I've been in Colombia for the last week and will be back in Brazil tomorrow, but while I've been away there has been a lot of interesting stuff published in the English-language press about Brazil. In this week's Economist, a piece on the president which weighs in on some of the issues I alluded to in my recent piece on Lula.

Facebook on the Rise

Tue, 04 Aug 2009 17:50:28 +0000

Social networking on the computer in Brazil has long meant one thing: Orkut. The Google program never caught on in the States, but it's long been huge down here, as I wrote about for another news organization in 2006, when it was already huge.

***

Swine flu hits Brazil

Mon, 03 Aug 2009 23:14:48 +0000

It’s Brazil’s turn. By latest count, 76 Brazilians have died from the A(H1N1) virus, the majority in the last few weeks. Most of the deaths have hit the country’s heavily populated southeast (where Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro are) and the wealthy southern states (which border Argentina, swine flu central for South America), although today the first deaths were reported in the the populous northeastern states of Bahia and Pernambuco.

Brazil enters recession on an up note

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 01:10:52 +0000

The long-awaited results are in, and it’s finally official: Brazil is in recession. GDP fell 0.8 percent in in the first quarter of 2009, after diving 3.6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008 (both compared with the corresponding quarter of the previous year). That’s actually not so bad — and in fact is far better than most economists thought would happen.

Brrrrrrrrr

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 01:29:27 +0000

I'm freezing.

It's hard to evoke much sympathy from friends back in the States when you complain about how cold it is in Brazil. And actually, average temperatures during Southern Hemisphere winter in Sao Paulo don't seem bad at all. The average June low is 54 degrees Fahrenheit. I know, boo-hoo.

So why am I shivering? First, of all, it's been getting down to the high 30s at night here these days. Yeah, I hear those of you who suffered through winter this year in New York or Michigan or Maine. Boo-hoo again.

Goldman Case: Update from Supreme Court

Wed, 03 Jun 2009 23:24:24 +0000

The Brazilian Supreme Court justice who blocked David Goldman from taking his son Sean back to the United States this afternoon said the entire court would take up the matter sometime next week, possibly as early as Wednesday, according to the Supreme Court's website. The justice, Marco Aurelio Mello, noted that the stay did not indicate he would vote in favor of the child's Brazilian f

Sean Goldman case: Child ordered to return to US — no, strike that

Wed, 03 Jun 2009 15:26:05 +0000

It looked like the five-year custody case that had risen to the highest levels of the Brazilian and American governments was drawing to a close. On Monday, a federal judge issued a sweeping ruling that ordered the Brazilian family of 9-year-old Sean Goldman to deliver him to the American consulate in Rio de Janeiro by 2 p.m. today.

Air France's missing jet: the view from Rio de Janeiro

Wed, 03 Jun 2009 15:03:19 +0000

RIO DE JANEIRO — There was an eerie backdrop to the dozens of Brazilian reporters who crowded the area behind the Air France counter in Galeao International Airport’s Terminal 1 today hungry for any speck of information: a long line of passengers checking in for Air France Flight 733, departing for Paris at 4:20 p.m.