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Monday, October 12, 2026
News and Views from the Global South
TRADE-MERCOSUR: Argentina and Brazil Take Steps to Save Bloc
Ministers of foreign affairs and of economy from Argentina and Brazil met Tuesday in Sao Paulo and agreed to establish 'a bilateral and temporary safeguard mechanism" in a bid to overcome the current crisis afflicting Mercosur (Southern Common Market).AGRICULTURE-BRAZIL: Boosting Soy Productivity – Without Transgenics
Soybean productivity in Brazil surpassed that of the United States this year, thanks to technological advances in agriculture which did not include the use of genetically modified crops./CORRECTION/ENVIRONMENT-BRAZIL: Wind Energy Finds Place in National Policy
Wind energy is movingpoliticallywith full sails in Brazil, largely due to the fact that electricity shortages since June have forced 70 percent of the population to cut back on energy consumption, and sent the authorities scrambling to come up with solutions.ENVIRONMENT-BRAZIL: Wind Energy Finds Place in National Policy
Wind energy is moving û politicallywith full sails in Brazil, largely due to the fact that electricity shortages since June have forced 70 percent of the population to cut back on energy consumption, and sent the authorities scrambling to come up with solutions.EDUCATION-BRAZIL: New Bill to Reserve University Quotas for Blacks
The Brazilian Senate is debating a bill that would reserve a minimum number of places in the universities for black students, a measure defended by the government at last month's World Conference Against Racism, in South Africa.HEALTH-BRAZIL: Malaria Is Not Invincible
A programme implemented jointly by national and municipal health authorities in Brazil could serve as a model for fighting malaria, as evidenced by its success in reducing the number of cases reported in the first half of the year by 43 percent with respect to the same period in 2000.COMMODITIES: Coffee Crisis Survivors to Reap Future Rewards
The coffee growers who survive the current price crisis will ultimately reap the rewards of the next boom period, while the least competitive are likely to be forced out of the coffee industry altogether, predict coffee experts in Brazil.TRADE-BRAZIL: Devaluation Finally Results in Surplus, Says Gov’t
Brazil's trade balance has finally responded to the dramatic depreciation of the national currency, the real, says the government, which predicts a five-billion- dollar surplus for 2002.TRANSPORT-LATAM: Terror Attacks Put Salt in Airlines’ Wounds
The layoffs of 1,750 employees announced by Brazil's flagship airline Varig marked the beginning of an adjustment period in Latin American commercial aviation, which was already in trouble but was pushed over the edge by the repercussions of the Sep 11 terrorist attacks in the United States.TRADE-MERCOSUR: External Negotiations Force Internal Harmony
Trade negotiations with the United States and with the European Union (EU) have revived the strategic side of Mercosur (Southern Cone Common Market), forcing its two leading members, Argentina and Brazil, to seek solutions to the bloc's internal problems.HEALTH/ENVIRONMENT: Brazil’s Steel Industry no Longer a Demon
Vanor Marcilio had a blood count of 8,000 leukocytes per cubic mm when he began working as an industrial painter in the Companhia Siderurgica Nacional (CSN), Brazil's national steelworks, in 1980. Seven years later, his white blood cell count had dropped to just over 3,000 per cubic mm.POLITICS-MERCOSUR: Iguazu’s Triple Border Turns into ‘Powder Keg’
The arrest Friday of 17 Paraguayans of Arab origin alleged ties to terrorist organisations has aggravated the existing tensions along the three-way border shared by Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay in the Iguazú Falls area.TECHNOLOGY-BRAZIL: New Strategies to Overcome Foreign Dependence
Most of the patents registered in Brazil belong to foreign companies, a clear indication of the country's level of technological dependence, which a conference this week made efforts to overcome.ENVIRONMENT-LATAM: Abundant Water, For a Few
Water is abundant in the Americas, but its irregular distribution throughout the region and the contamination and waste of this precious resource mean it is scarce for many people.LATAM-US: Xenophobic Threats Target Arabs Everywhere
The xenophobic reaction to the terrorist attacks against New York and Washington Tuesday are threatening communities of Arab immigrants found throughout the world, including in Latin America.CULTURE-POLITICS: Real-Life Terror Wins the Ratings War
The world's response to the tragedy of the terrorist attacks in the United States this week reinforces the theory that there is growing confusion - or fusion - between life and show business, reality and fiction.CULTURE-BRAZIL: Circuses Defend Their Reputation
Brazil's circuses, which provide 32,000 direct jobs, have begun to mobilise to defend their rights, demand conditions that would enable them to become fully modern companies, and fight derogatory references that they complain have given them a bad image.CULTURE-BRAZIL: New Boost for Film Industry
Brazil's filmmaking industry has been given a boost, in the form of a newly created regulatory agency and additional funding, although the new measures are a slightly watered-down version of what filmmakers were pushing for.ENVIRONMENT-LATAM: Waste and Pollution Aggravate Water Shortages
The pressing problems of waste and contamination of water in Latin America, where many cities already suffer shortages and inadequate coverage, drew together concerned authorities, experts and environmentalists this week in the Brazilian city of Foz de Iguazu.RIGHTS-BRAZIL: Rural Activists Killed in New Wave of Violence
Rural trade unionist Miguel Freitas da Silva, a 44-year-old father of eight, was killed Monday outside his home in Ipaú, in the northern Brazilian state of Pará, the area with the highest level of rural violence in the country. Freitas da Silva was the sixth rural activist murdered since July.ENVIRONMENT-BRAZIL: Shell Group May Face Lawsuit on Toxic Waste
The 181 residents of a neighbourhood in the Brazilian municipality of Paulinia, 120 km from Sao Paulo, waited anxiously during a seemingly endless month to find out the results of a series of toxicology tests.« Previous Page — Next Page »
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