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Wednesday, August 19, 2026
News and Views from the Global South
BRAZIL: The Ironies of Politics
The irony of politics is that the principles upheld by a party are often contradicted in practice, in the struggle for office or the exercise of power. Brazil's elections, in which Dilma Rousseff was chosen as the country's first woman president, offer some apt illustrations.
BRAZIL: Women Still a Small Minority in Congress, But Top Job Is Now Theirs
Although women are a majority of the population, the electorate, and doctoral students in Brazil, have more years of schooling on average than men, and hold almost half of all formal sector jobs, they remain a tiny minority in positions of political power. But South America's giant will now have its first woman president, Dilma Rousseff.
BRAZIL: Environment Meets Development en Route to the Pacific
Acre, the small Brazilian state that is a symbol of the struggle to preserve the Amazon rainforest, is facing the challenge of ensuring that the development ushered in by two paved roads that will link the state to both the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans will be sustainable.
BRAZIL: Making a Living from Lumber Without Destroying the Amazon
The Zolinger family, a typical example of those who migrated from southern Brazil to the Amazon in search of land and fortune, now has a second chance in the lumber industry, after contributing to the devastation of the forests in Rondônia state, where they settled in 1979.
Making a Living from Lumber Without Destroying the Amazon
Forest management helped multiply 20-fold the value of native forests in the Brazilian Amazon state of Acre. But how do those who dedicate themselves to sustainable extraction of Amazon lumber get by?
BRAZIL: Environmentalism Not a Top Priority for Voters
Getting voters to put a priority on policies that protect the environment is a challenge facing environmentalists and politicians in Brazil, especially in areas lacking in basic infrastructure, like the Amazon jungle.
BRAZIL: Two-Party Domination Showing Signs of Exhaustion
Brazil's presidential elections, which will be decided in an Oct. 31 runoff, have once against reflected the confrontation of the two parties that have dominated national politics since 1994. However, the unexpectedly strong performance of Green Party candidate Marina Silva points to a weakening of that dichotomy.
BRAZIL: Voters Likely to Elect First Woman President
The woman likely to be elected president of Brazil, Latin America's giant, either on Sunday or in an Oct. 31 runoff, is idealistic but pragmatic and has a reputation as a tough, seasoned administrator.
BRAZIL: Oil Palm Industry Seeks to Atone for Its Sins
"Better 'dendê' than cattle," says Violeta dos Reis, who cooks and serves meals in the small eatery she runs with her husband in the community of Arauaí in Brazil's northern Amazon jungle. In this rural area, a new world is opening up for poor farmers.
LATIN AMERICA: Crisis Not a Thing of the Past for NGOs
The countries of Latin America, with few exceptions, have weathered the global recession of the past two years relatively well, while they simultaneously continued the process of shedding neoliberal policies in their most fundamentalist form. But in financial terms, non-governmental organisations have not fared so well.
BRAZIL: Small-scale Palm Oil Production Is Women’s Work Too
"This isn't women's work," they told her. But Benedita Nascimento is now one of the most outstanding success stories of a family farming programme involving palm oil production in Brazil's eastern Amazon jungle.
BRAZIL: Laws No Help to Amazon Animals, or People
Every year, more than a million Amazonian turtle eggs do not make it to the hatching period, nor do they serve as food for humans in the Tabuleiro de Embaubal, a series of beaches along the final stretch of Brazil's Xingú River.BRAZIL: Sugarcane’s Electrical Potential Goes to Waste
Sugarcane could replace the energy produced by three hydroelectric dams like the Belo Monte in the Amazon, claims the Brazilian sugarcane industry, which remains relegated to marginal participation in the national electricity matrix.
Laws No Help to Amazon Animals, or People
Strict laws prevent Brazil's Amazon river dwellers from making use of wildlife that is otherwise destroyed by natural causes anyway, say experts.
BRAZIL: Water Abounds in Amazon, But Sanitation Is Scarce
It might seem a bit strange to adopt, in the Amazon rainforest, a solution developed for drought-stricken northeastern Brazil. But rainwater collected on rooftops and stored in tanks is helping to improve the health, hygiene and overall living conditions of rural communities in the jungle.
Q&A: “We Must Move from a Masculine to a Feminine Economy”
It is necessary to move from a "masculine" economy based on competition and a win-lose mentality to a "feminine" win-win economy based on the concept of collaboration, says writer Rose Marie Muraro, one of the pioneers of Brazil's feminist movement.
BRAZIL: Environmental Impact Studies on Dams Count for Little in Amazon
"It's a fait accompli," acknowledges André Villas-Boas, head of the independent SocioEnvironmental Institute (ISA), resigned to the fact that the legal actions and protests have failed to block the construction of the Belo Monte hydroelectric dam in Brazil's Amazon jungle region.BRAZIL: Women’s Votes, Hard to Pin Down but Crucial
Female voters in Brazil could ensure an easy victory this October for the ruling Workers Party candidate, Dilma Rousseff. But recent polls seem to indicate that it is women themselves who are most reluctant to elect the country’s first female president.
BRAZIL: Electricity Trumps Biodiversity for Xingu River
Herculano Porto de Oliveira, of Brazil, said he felt forced "to live in hiding on my own land, though I never fought with anyone or stole anything," just for making a living from the biodiversity of the Amazon's Xingú River Basin, where he was born 66 years ago.SPORTS: Power and Passion Put Football Above the Law
The FIFA Football World Cup is presented -- and felt emotionally by millions -- as a contest amongst countries in which national honour is at stake. But it is also a private business, controlled by a small group of people who exploit patriotism and foment rivalries in marketing the "product."
BRAZIL: Belo Monte Dam Means Floods for Some, Drought for Others
"There will be two years of abundance, and then famine," says Brazilian indigenous leader José Carlos Arara, laying bare his opinion of the promises that the Belo Monte hydroelectric dam will not alter the living conditions of the people in this part of the eastern Amazon.« Previous Page — Next Page »
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