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Tuesday, August 18, 2026
News and Views from the Global South
WORLD SOCIAL FORUM: A Time of More Complex Global Crises
Neoliberalism and the attendant financial globalisation were a common enemy that unified and mobilised activists of the most diverse tendencies who founded, ten years ago in Porto Alegre in southern Brazil, the World Social Forum (WSF) as a space to meet, reflect and debate, under the slogan "Another World Is Possible".
China and Brazil Inundate Latin America with Dams
The growing presence of Chinese and Brazilian capital in Latin America's energy sector is facilitating the construction of hydroelectric complexes, but is also the fuelling nationalist stances that are adding to the environmental criticisms of those major projects.BRAZIL: Lending a Hand to Less Developed Countries
Mothers' milk banks that are helping reduce infant mortality in Guatemala and are starting to be set up in Africa as well form part of the numerous social technologies developed by Brazil that are driving the fast growth of its international development cooperation.
China and Brazil Flood Latin America with Dams
With green lights for major hydroelectric dam projects, Brazil and China are competing to create the conditions for making the most out of energy from Latin America's mighty rivers.
BRAZIL: “Don Quixote” of River Transport Starting to Win Battles
It is mere ignorance that stands in the way of Brazil having a broad network of navigable waterways and leads to the wasted potential of the country's great rivers, laments José Alex de Oliva, superintendent of inland navigation at Brazil's national waterways transport regulator (ANTAQ).Rainfall Patterns Can’t Be Ignored in Climate Change Debate
In discussions of human activities that affect the climate, there is relatively little talk about alterations in rainfall patterns, despite the enormous implications that such changes have on human survival.
BRAZIL: New President’s First Steps Fuel Optimism of Women’s Movement
The initial steps taken by Brazil's first woman president, Dilma Rousseff, have confirmed that a stronger female presence will indeed be a hallmark of her administration.
Overhaul Foreign Aid to Rebuild Haiti
The international community's response was fast and effective during the emergency cause by the Jan. 12, 2010 earthquake in Haiti that claimed at least 230,000 lives. But the "impressive" outpouring of solidarity stalled when reconstruction began, as international and local institutions failed to measure up to the challenge.
BRAZIL: Resilient Plants Could Hold Key to Adapting Agriculture
A vision of "the Apocalypse, everything burnt, turned black from ashes and smoke," was what photographer Mila Petrillo saw when she returned in October to what had been her Eden in the Brazilian municipality of Alto Paraiso, 230 km from Brasilia.
BRAZIL: Climate Change Means New Crop Health Concerns
Farming around the globe, already reeling from drought, heat waves and major storms, will have to prepare for the new challenges that global warming will bring, especially in the form of pests and disease.
BRAZIL: Oil Palm Plantations Expand on Degraded Land in Amazon
Brazil hopes to eventually become a major producer of palm oil, thanks to the expansion of this new exotic monoculture crop in the eastern Amazon jungle, where eucalyptus plantations are also mushrooming on broad swaths of already deforested land.
Climate Change Means New Crop Health Concerns
Phytosanitary problems could see dramatic changes in the coming decades as a result of climate change. A Brazilian project is dedicated to researching the possibilities and providing solutions.
SOUTH AMERICA: Rain May Disappear from the World’s Breadbasket
South America still has vast extensions of land available for growing crops to help meet the global demand for food and biofuels. But the areas of greatest potential agricultural production -- central-southern Brazil, northern Argentina, and Paraguay -- could be left without the necessary rains.Wikileaks “Gossip” Merely Annoying in Latin America
Although revelations by the whistle-blowing website Wikileaks concerning Latin America have caused irritation in the region, they have not had any significant effects so far.Brazilian Economy Booming, but Sliding Backwards
Although the Brazilian economy is now one of the fastest growing in the world, it cannot claim an entirely clean bill of health. Declining industrial output threatens to put the country's development into reverse, and no short term remedy is in sight.
BRAZIL: Mitigating Impacts of Progress in Amazon Jungle
"We want real compensation," said Luis Nascimento de Freitas, a fisherman from Vila Teotonio, a ramshackle town on the banks of the Madeira River that will be flooded when the Santo Antonio hydroelectric plant is completed.
BRAZIL: Link to the Pacific: Road, Rail or Ship?
A land route to the Pacific, long coveted by Brazil, would not reduce the cost of transporting Brazilian exports to China and other markets in Asia and would not make them more competitive, as advocates of paving roads and building bridges through the Amazon jungle argue.
BRAZIL: Cattle Ranching Areas in the Amazon Industrialise
The agricultural frontier state of Rondonia in Brazil is a byword for deforestation in the Amazon jungle, much of which has been cleared in the northwestern state for cash crops and a cattle herd that has grown to 12 million head.G20: Heading Towards the End of Globalisation?
A "grave recession" in the world economy may lie ahead, with a profusion of new barriers to trade and capital flows, if the Group of 20 major economies (G20) fail to come up with solutions to the present crisis.
BOLIVIA-BRAZIL: One-Sided Free Trade at the Border
There are no toy stores or electronics shops in Brasiléia, a city in Brazil's northwestern Amazonian state of Acre. To buy toys or computer items, the city's 20,000 inhabitants have to go to neighbouring Cobija, across the border in Bolivia.
BRAZIL: Battle Between Jungle and Livestock in the Amazon
"Put yourself in God's hands," his mother told him just before she died. Only later did he understand that as she was dying of kidney failure, she was urging him to continue her work as a Catholic evangelist.« Previous Page — Next Page »
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