SÃO PAULO, Brazil — Brazil has one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. But can those gains wipe out poverty? President Dilma Rousseff is betting that it can. Most people know about the glitz and glamour of cities like Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. But the impoverished in those cities’ slums, and in …
SÃO PAULO, Brazil — This business hub, South America’s largest city, is usually bustling from dawn until dusk. But on a recent Wednesday morning, São Paulo ground to a halt. Subway and train workers, disgruntled about poor wages and benefits, had gone on strike, leaving more than 4.8 million commuters without a ride. Buses still …
SÃO PAULO, Brazil — In Brazil, it’s not unusual to see “Taliban” run for election. That is, after all, Farvardin Asazadeh Asgarabadi’s nickname. The 45-year-old merchant living in the São Paulo town of Pindamonhangaba is originally from Iran, but is now running for city councilman in his new home. He’s not alone. Some 1,450 naturalized …
SÃO PAULO, Brazil — José Américo Crippa’s 1974 Chevrolet Monte Carlo boasts just about every feature that a lowrider should have, including dazzling chrome wheels, a sliding ragtop roof, a candy-apple red paint job and hydraulic pumps that enable the vehicle to bounce several feet in the air at the press of a button. “I’m pimping it,” … Continue reading »
SÃO PAULO, Brazil — Wrapped in a Persian rug caked in dirt, a man addicted to crack cocaine listened as Elizeu Dias tried to persuade him to take the last spot available in an old Volkswagen van that is taking addicts to drug treatment. “When I hug them, they’re shocked,” says Dias, 37, a former … Continue reading »
SÃO PAULO, Brazil — As the world’s population grows — to 9 billion by 2050 — so too does the demand for food. That means land currently dedicated to agriculture is being tasked with producing greater yields, often in a shorter amount of time. Researchers around the world are working to figure out how to … Continue reading »
RIO DE JANEIRO — At one new megachurch in São Paulo, a Roman Catholic priest who was a personal trainer before joining the clergy energetically belts out songs, rock-star style, before 25,000 worshipers. Other Brazilian priests are donning cowboy hats and crooning country tunes at Mass or writing best-selling advice tomes emblazoned with heartthrob photographs on the cover. If there … Continue reading »
RIO DE JANEIRO — A fire ignited by a flare from a band’s pyrotechnics spectacle swept through a nightclub filled with hundreds of university students early on Sunday morning in Santa Maria, a city in southern Brazil, killing at least 233 people, officials said. Health workers hauled bodies from the club, called Kiss, to hospitals in Santa Maria … Continue reading »
When the original King Kong was first brought to life on the silver screen by Ruth Rose and James Ashmore Creelman in 1933, it was ground-breaking. Mind-boggling. Innovative. There weren’t many people who had heard of stop-motion, let alone seen it in action. Animator Willis O’Brien perfected the craft. The giant ape moved across the … Continue reading »
With its growing economy putting it on the map, Brazil has become a country to watch and with which to forge new partnerships. Because of this new economic surge, about 30 university presidents from across Canada recently took a trip to the South American country on what they called an “international education mission.” They crisscrossed … Continue reading »
