FAO Quotables

"But being right, even morally right, isn't everything. It is also important to be competent, to be consistent, and to be knowledgeable. It's important for your soldiers and diplomats to speak the language of the people you want to influence. It's important to understand the ethnic and tribal divisions of the place you hope to assist."
-Anne Applebaum

Showing posts with label brazil. Show all posts
Showing posts with label brazil. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 19, 2024

North Region of Brazil Background

A Região Norte do Brasil é uma área vasta e diversificada com características únicas. Aqui está uma visão geral abrangendo população, quantos estados, destinos turísticos, habitantes famosos, comida típica e história:




População:

A Região Norte do Brasil é a maior região do país em área territorial, mas possui uma das menores densidades populacionais. Sua população é concentrada principalmente em centros urbanos como Manaus, Belém e Porto Velho, com uma grande proporção da população vivendo em áreas rurais e comunidades indígenas. A população é composta por uma diversidade de grupos étnicos, incluindo indígenas, descendentes de europeus e africanos, e migrantes de outras regiões do Brasil.

Quantos Estados:

A Região Norte do Brasil é composta por sete estados: Acre, Amapá, Amazonas, Pará, Rondônia, Roraima e Tocantins.

Destinos Turísticos:

  1. Manaus e o Rio Amazonas: A capital do estado do Amazonas, Manaus, é um ponto de partida comum para explorar a Floresta Amazônica e os rios da região, incluindo o icônico Rio Amazonas. Os visitantes podem desfrutar de passeios de barco, observação da vida selvagem e visitas a comunidades indígenas.
  2. Parque Nacional do Monte Roraima: Localizado na tríplice fronteira entre Brasil, Venezuela e Guiana, o Monte Roraima é uma montanha misteriosa e imponente, cercada por paisagens únicas e formações rochosas peculiares.
  3. Belém e o Pará: Belém, a capital do estado do Pará, oferece uma mistura de cultura, história e culinária amazônica. Destaques incluem o Mercado Ver-o-Peso, o complexo turístico das Ilhas de Belém e o Parque Mangal das Garças.
  4. Alter do Chão: Conhecido como o "Caribe da Amazônia", Alter do Chão é famoso por suas praias de água doce e paisagens deslumbrantes, tornando-se um destino popular para ecoturismo e relaxamento.
  5. Parque Nacional do Juruena: Localizado no estado do Mato Grosso, o Parque Nacional do Juruena é uma área de conservação com uma rica biodiversidade, oferecendo oportunidades para trekking, observação da vida selvagem e turismo de aventura.

Habitantes Famosos:

  • Chico Mendes: Ambientalista brasileiro e líder sindical nascido no Acre, conhecido por sua luta pela preservação da Amazônia e pelos direitos dos povos indígenas.
  • Davi Kopenawa Yanomami: Líder indígena yanomami e xamã, reconhecido internacionalmente por seu ativismo em defesa dos direitos dos povos indígenas e pela proteção da floresta amazônica.
  • Maria Osmarina Marina Silva Vaz de Lima (Marina Silva): Ambientalista e política brasileira, nascida no Acre, conhecida por sua atuação na defesa do meio ambiente e dos direitos dos povos indígenas.

Comida Típica:

  • Tacacá: Uma sopa amazônica feita com tucupi (um caldo amarelo extraído da mandioca), jambu (uma erva amazônica que causa dormência na boca), camarão seco e goma de tapioca.
  • Açaí: Uma fruta roxa nativa da Amazônia, geralmente consumida na forma de um cremoso sorvete de açaí, muitas vezes acompanhado de frutas ou granola.
  • Pato no Tucupi: Um prato tradicional do Pará, feito com pato cozido no tucupi e servido com jambu.

História:

  • A Região Norte do Brasil tem uma rica história que remonta aos povos indígenas que habitavam a região antes da chegada dos colonizadores europeus.
  • Durante o período colonial, a região foi explorada pelos portugueses em busca de recursos naturais, como o pau-brasil e minerais preciosos.
  • No século XIX, a exploração da borracha na Amazônia impulsionou o desenvolvimento econômico da região, atraindo migrantes de várias partes do Brasil e do mundo.
  • A região também desempenhou um papel importante na história recente do Brasil, especialmente no contexto da luta pela preservação ambiental e pelos direitos dos povos indígenas.

Esta é apenas uma visão geral da Região Norte do Brasil, uma região rica em cultura, biodiversidade e história, que oferece uma experiência única para os visitantes.


Related Brazil Posts:

Sunday, February 25, 2024

Aprendam Português: Piaui Gets a Port with Help from Brasilian Navy

The Brasilian Navy has a great public affairs team publishing articles regularly on their ongoing operations and initiatives. While studying Portugeuse these articles are a great way to build up your maritime vocabulary!

Piaui porto 

Aprendam Português: Brasilian Wine Country!

Good read on the Brasilian wine industry efforts to entice more wine-tasting tourist to the south!
Copy of Vindima 2024: regiões do Brasil preparam programação especial para enoturistas 
Related Brazil Posts:

Aprendam Português: UK Foreign Minister Cameron Visit

The Brasilian Navy has a great public affairs team publishing articles regularly on their ongoing operations and initiatives. While studying Portugeuse these articles are a great way to build up your maritime vocabulary!
UK Cameron Visit to NAM Atlantico 

Saturday, February 10, 2024

Brazil Movies, Docs, and TV shows

 (see bottom of post for links to other Brazil resources)

Documentaries

The Edge of Democracy: Explores one of the most dramatic periods in Brazilian history. Combining unprecedented access to leaders past and present, including Presidents Dilma Rousseff and Lula da Silva, with accounts of her own family's complex past, filmmaker Petra Costa (ELENA) witnesses their rise and fall and the tragically polarized nation that remains.

City of God: 10 Years Later (2013): Shows what has changed in the lives of the actors from the 2002 feature film, City of God. The actors who portrayed Dadinho, Bené, and Li'l Zé, as well as the actress Alice Braga and musician and actor Seu Jorge participated in this documentary.

The Great Robbery of Brazil's Central Bank (2022): In 2005, thieves tunneled into the vault of a bank in Fortaleza, Brazil, and stole more than 160 million reais. 3 episode docuseries.



Films:


https://www.screendaily.com/news/the-highest-grossing-brazilian-films-of-last-20-years-revealed/5120882.article 

City of God (2002).  Now more than two decades old this movie stands as a cinematic classic on its own whether or not you've got a specific interest in Brasil. "Takes place on the streets of the world's most notorious slum, Rio de Janeiro's City of God. This is a place where combat photographers fear to tread, police rarely go and residents are lucky if they live to the age of 20. In the midst of the oppressive crime and violence, a frail and scared young boy will grow up to discover that he can view the harsh realities of his surroundings with an artistic eye. In the face of impossible odds, his brave ambition to become a professional photographer becomes a window into his world and ultimately his way out."


Elite Squad (2007).  Based on the book Elite de Tropa, written by two BOPE policemen.  an intense and astonishing look at Rio de Janeiro's notorious favelas, the volatile slums on the edge of the city.  The film is set in 1997 and presents an intimate look at the city's vast and intricate web of corruption.

Elite Squad: The Enemy Within (2010). The second highest grossing film of all time in Brasil.  After a prison riot, Captain Nascimiento, now a high ranking security officer in Rio de Janeiro, is swept into a bloody political dispute that involves government officials and paramilitary groups.

 


TV Shows:

Invisible City (2023).  TV series that brings to life many of the myths and the folklore of Brazil. A man begins to live between reality and an invisible world inhabited by fantastic beings after his wife died - and realized that not everything is as it seems. The Invisible City series, by Oscar-nominated director Carlos Saldanha, delves into the stories of Brazilian folklore in a current way and talks about the power of human relationships.


The Girls from Ipanema (2020). Nostalgic series that takes the viewer into Rio at the birth of Boss-Nova. 



The Mechanism (2019). Dramatic fiction series loosely inspired by an investigation of corruption in Brazil's private and state oil companies and construction companies.

Good Morning Veronica (2022). After witnessing a suicide, an unobtrusive police clerk decides to investigate two neglected cases on her own, both involving abused women.

3% (2016).  The first Brasilian series to make it big on Netflix. Dystopian series "A world divided into progress and devastation. The link between the two sides - Offshore and Inland - is a rigorous and painstaking system called The Process. Everyone in Inland has a chance to go through The Process to live a better life in Offshore. But only 3% make it through."

The Brotherhood (Irmandade).  This one is gripping.  O que acontece do lado de dentro de uma facção criminosa? Você teria coragem de se envolver? Cristina só quer fazer o certo, mas "certo" é uma palavra com muitos significados.


Related Brazil Posts:

Sunday, January 28, 2024

The Brazil Starter Pack (Book Recs)

If you are going to read only one book on Brazil read this one: Brazil: A Biography.  It's the one that's been most recommended to me.  Yes, it's massive--the audible version is nearly 29 hours long--but the native Brazilian author team offer a comprehensive and clearly written account that spans from "first contact" between the European invaders ("discoverers") up to the transition from military dictatorship in the 80s.  One of the authors, Lilia Schwarcz was inducted into the Academia Brasileira de Letras earlier in 2024, becoming only the 11th woman to join the esteemed literary institution since it was founded in 1897.

The Collector of Leftover Souls: Field Notes on Brazil's Everyday Insurrections.  This book is a collection of essays by reporter Eliane Brum.  In it she sheds light on different facets of Brasilian society normally buried in darkness: Os povos indígenas, minorias sociais, os povos que vivem à margem da sociedade, longe dos núcleos de poder.  Essential Brasil read.











Brazillionaires (Audible).  Incredible Michael Lewis-style tale of the rise of the 21st century rise (and fall for some) of a billionaire class in Brazil told against the backdrop of corruption, favelas, soccer stadiums, kidnappings and Miami real estate.  Essential Brasil read.











Dancing with the Devil in the City of God: Rio de Janeiro and the Olympic Dream (Brazil book).  Prodigal daughter/Journalist Julianna Barbassa returns to her home city after a childhood spent largely abroad.  Part memoir, part expose, part investigative journalism that covers the national and city politician's ill considered efforts to prepare the city and populace to host the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics. Her thorough reporting brings the reader behind the fabric of Brazilian government and societal machinations, triumphs, and dysfunction. 

xvi-xvii:    The Lula story: rise from poverty in the Nordeste, shining shoes as a child, selling peanuts in the street, then a steelworker and union leader.  A rise above previously entrenched societal hierarchies--founded the Workers' Party.  Ran for President three times and lost prior to 2002.  But then with a reformed and more business friendly he image he won twice. He played the pivotal role in winning the 2016 Olympic bid for Brazil. 

xviii:         Rio as the cidade maravilhosa, the heart of Brazil
xxii:         "God is Brazilian" is a common refrain for Brasileiros to describe good fortune in their country
xxii:        para Ingles ver is an Brazilian expression to describe a facade meant to pull the wool over western eyes.  First used when they signed a international treaty to abolish slavery but kept doing it anyways.  
9:            Escape by helicopter of  Jose Carlos dos Reis Encina aka Escadihna aka Little Ladder, the founder of Commando Vermelho
13:            UPPS (Unidades da Policia Pacificadora) Permanent police bases inside the favelas
15-20:      The history of the Vermelho Commando  
21:            Rio as the cidade partida divided between the morro and the asfalta


Essential Brasil read.











The Invisibles (Brazil book).  Came across this book on a colleague's bookshelf and he kindly let me borrow it.  I liked it so much that I ordered a copy of my own!  A British woman and a Brazilian man fall in love in the 70's and have a child.  Unfortunately, he falls on hard times and ends up jailed under the military dictatorship.  His wife and child flee to England and never return believing him dead...until some 30 years later when a news clip give his son hope his father might still be alive in Rio.  Thus begins a journey for one man's father but also his long lost country--all against the backdrop of a class/tranche of society that often feels invisible--hence the name.   Brasil read.











Related Brazil Posts:





Friday, January 26, 2024

Brazil YouTube Channels

Youtube Channels

 Speaking Brasilian Language School with Virginia

 

Brasilian Maithe



SpencerSabe

Mundo Sem Fim (Brazil Playlist)

Chris Gringo


Porta Dos Fundos
(this Office style show has some entertaining clips like the one below--also check out the "Brasileiro Tourista" clip)

Paul Cabannes
French stand up comedian that lives and does standup in Portguese--some hilarious bits.


Brazil Podcasts

This blog has long been a repository for sharing information on working as a foreign area officer in embassies and particularly, in Africa.  With my next assignment to Brazil, I've pivoted to focus on that country and am using these posts to organize my research as I prepare myself.  My hope is that this will help others who come behind me.

Here's a link to my post on Brazilian Portuguese youtoube channels: Brazilian Portuguese YouTube Channels

Recommended Podcasts: 

In English:

Explaining Brasil is a phenomenal podcast to hear from native academic experts on current and historical events in Brazil.  It's fun by The Brazilian Report which is an independent media company that publishes journalism in English by Brasilians.

Brazil Unfiltered is hosted by James N. Green, Professor of Brazilian History and Culture at Brown University and the National Co-Coordinator of the U.S. Network for Democracy in Brazil. It's part of the Democracy Observatory, supported by the Washington Brazil Office. While the name WBO sounds like its something funded by the US Government, this is actually a independent think tank-type organization.  The podcast itself is edited and produced by Camilo Rocha in São Paulo.

Americas 360 is produced by the Woodrow Wilson Center and while it's not focused exclusively on Brazil it's a good resource for policy oriented discussions on the western hemisphere.  It has put out about 52 episodes to date (about one every month).  The Wilson Center also has a "Brazil Institute

The Wilson Center's 'Brazil Institute' podcast stated in 2020 and has released about a dozen episodes over the last few years.  

The Brazilian Hour is a podcast run out of the Cultural Affairs team at the Brazilian consulate in L.A. It's sponsored by the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs ("Itamaraty") and focuses on conversations with different Brasilian musicians.  

Brazuca Sounds is a superb podcast for music lovers--it's about "Brazilian music of all styles, decades, and genres hosted by Leandro Vignoli."

Em Portuguese:

Carioca Connection features conversations  between a native speaker from Rio (hence the podcast name) and an American learning Portuguese.    
Fala Gringo is a show in easy Brazilian Portuguese to intermediate learners.  Spotify has a beta setting that will scroll closed captions while you listen which is super helpful for those studying Portuguese com mim!
    

Cafe de Manha



Coffee Break Portuguese
is a basic one but a great thing to listen to in the car with your crianças  while you are waiting to move to/travel to Brazil!
 
 Resumao Diario is a news cast for daily news.  
Boletim Folha is a news podcast for daily news