Author Archive

Since 2012, the villages of the semi-arid Ceará, a state in northeastern Brazil, have been crying out for drinking water. The “sertão” is a naturally dry region, but there are years when the amount of rainfall is smaller than expected and drought takes its toll on the people living there. […]

Homeless people are a reality worldwide; they are often driven to a life on the streets by unemployment, alcohol addiction and disputes with relatives. In Brazil, civil society and government initiatives are trying address the needs of those struggling to live on the streets. But as the blog of the […]

  A mobility project has been sparking controversy in the city of Fortaleza, Brazil, since early July, 2013. Why? Because a scheme to construct two overpasses requires the  cutting down 94 trees in Cocó Park, the city’s largest green lung. The city government promised to compensate this sad loss by […]

On the issue of free trade agreements, what’s better than the workers’ point of view? In 2012, during a national conference of the footwear industry workers, I became aware of Brazilian workers’s take on the flow of shoes, their jobs, Chinese goods and international agreements.

The musical genre forró is particularly popular in the states of Northeast Brazil, with themes that range from enduring the harsh semiarid land to praising the “playboy lifestyle” through its more recent electronic beat. Relations between men and women in the region arise from the lyrics, and one song in particular has been critical to stress the value of independent working women.