Brazzil

Member states of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) signed a pact on Friday, May 23 in Brazilian capital Brasília to establish judicial and political components for the emerging, limited union. On the docket was a plan to create a military coordinating component of UNASUR, the Conselho Sul-Americano de Defesa (CSD).

The financial crisis which has hit American and European banks has cost tens of thousands of workers their jobs. One side effect of this has been a rise in interest by Western bankers in other markets, particularly in India, the Middle East and the Far East.

Brazil made an impression on the free software world during the past five years of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's administration by promoting a policy of migration to open source software for the government and state-owned industry. Initial press coverage of this policy change away from proprietary software was celebrated in many mainstream media outlets. (1)

Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is having the time of his life at the moment. Barely a day goes by when he does not pop up in some part of the country like a latter-day Harold MacMillan telling everyone that they have never had it so good.

It is a shame that, after 23 years of direct elections of the rector and after the election of five rectors (one of them reelected) by the university community, the University of Brasília (UnB) must once again undergo a period with a rector pro tempore appointed by the Minister of Education.

Since it was enacted in October 1988, the Brazilian Constitution has developed judicial independence and offered to the population a broader access to the courts. Over these last two decades, however, the level of distrust in the Brazilian judiciary has paradoxically increased, and judges have been constantly involved in practices of corruption.

There is a new participant in the international deliberations on global warming and agrofuels: the biotechnology industry. The corporate giants of the genetics industry propose new technologies, including genetically modified trees, second generation cellulosic ethanol, and synthetic biology, to wean society off fossil fuels and fight climate change.

With food riots across the globe in the news, the immediate cause of food shortages is simply this: grain prices have doubled over the last year and poor people can no longer afford to buy enough food. There is no one single cause for the price rise; it is a combination of supply and demand.

In these weeks leading up to the 120th anniversary of the Abolition of Slavery in Brazil, I have spent some time reading the Chamber of Deputies' and the Federal Senate's records from the sessions in which the Congress was debating and approving the Lei Áurea, the law that banned slavery.