I've always been fascinated to listen to sociological, financial and political "experts" discuss Brasil and it's swings and sways, ups and downs... a mixture that has always seemed to me to be some mind-boggling mix of Chess and Poker. so I decided to try to write down what I understood of our reality daily, as a learning effort, and to put it into English. We'll see how it goes.
Monday, April 27, 2009
Swine Flu Drops Shares of Brasilian Airlines and Meat Packers
This Monday (27/4), the shares of companies in both the sectors declined strongly, as investors expect less export of swine products and less travel to Mexico and the USA.
By 14:00, shares JBS-Friboi (JBSS3) fell by 6.91%, .This Company has pig operations in the United States, country that already has confirmed cases of the illness.
Health department states the swine flu is not transmitted by the meat, but this did not stop China, Russia, South Korea, Indonesia and Thailand placing embargoes on the products from the United States and Mexico.
Brasilians leave Mexico Hotels, Universities for fear of Swine Flu
Inspectors of the National Agency of Sanitary Monitoring (Anvisa) met the arrival of Aeroméxico flight 0014 abd the Mexican Company of Aviacion flight 1689 Airport of Guarulhos, dressed in masks and latex gloves.
A brasilian surferwho spent 10 days Nexpa and noticed the epidemic climate when he arrived in Mexico City last Thursday (23). "It seemed we were in a Sci-Fi movie" he joked through his face mask.
Twitter is FULL of chatter and information on this situation, search #swineflu, #influenza.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Sweet News: Brazilian exportation of honey grows 12% in March
The growth compared to March of 2008, when exports were 990 tons in weight.
Friday, April 24, 2009
Politicians attempt to gag the use of the internet to protect selves in coming elections
Among others steps backwards, he declares the same restrictions already applied to the electoral propaganda on TV and radio,( that are concessions of the State and so mainly in the hands of established political families)
It also restricted the candidates to having only one site in the net, not being able to use tools of contact and interaction with the voters except through this one site.
Even with the attempt to impose restrictions that will favor the members of the present political class, the Internet will have a larger part to play in the electoral battles of this year.
In the presidential election of 2006 there was already an attempt to limit the effect of the internet vis-à-vis the TV and Radio media that is almost 95% in the hands of long time politicians.
The Internet itself makes difficult to enforce these restrictive measures and allows ideas and proposals circulate freely, interacting with the society.
Well made, well directed internet presentations can reach a powerful universe of people.
A video of Obama, in the late election had upwards of 20 million hits in few days.
We expect to see these latest attempts to guarantee the in-place politicians stability and immunity from prosecution for their extensive, open corruption made useless by the liberty of expression imposed by the internet.
Judge Condems Manager for "Branding" Secretary
A former-secretary of a farm mechanics firm in Goiânia will have to receive indemnity for pain and suffering, aesthetic and material loss to the value of US$ 15,000.
The woman was branded with an iron used to mark tires in her shoulder by the owner of the company with HL, the initials of his company.
Judge Platon Grandson, of 8ª Court of Goiânia, considered the act “Barbarian”.
In the sentence, the magistrate comments that at the time the condemned committed this aggression, the manager, to add insult to injury, ironized to his secretary, that " Cows are marked here".
There's nuts everywhere. Did this character think he would get away with this? Or is he just an idiot? What does he do to his family?
Brasilian Scientists reduce the effluent of ethanol fermentation in half.
Researchers and the private initiative had discovered a way to reduce of residue from the production of ethanol. Vinasse is the main residue of the fermentation of sugar cane - a water mixture with organic substances and a very high BOD.
It cannot be disposed of in the rivers due to the risk of killing everything in the water.
The solution found was to double the alcoholic content at the end of fermentation so there is proportionally less vinasse for the same sugar.
Most fermentations end with 7 -9% ethanol. Higher levels will begin to kill the yeast used.
The amount of vinasse produces is enormous and costs a lot to spray on the fields (the present best solution).
This new technique allows the final ethanol level to reach around 15–17% so there is proportionally less vinasse
This means less cost to apply to the fields and a more efficient/economical distillation.
The economy for the industry in Brasil can easily exceed R$ 1 billion a year.
The process is not patentable as it was presented in an open meeting in 2008
The Brasilan Post Office Quickly Adapts to the Internet's Challanges
In fact, the number of letters fell.
But the businesses of the Brazilian Company of Post Offices and Telegraphs went against the flow and grew in clever and adaptive ways.
In 2008,11 billion Reals .
The president of the company, Carlos Custódio, explains this performance by linking to the extraordinary growth of the Brasilian economy in recent years.
He also credits the launching of new products, based on internet technology.
The next challenge is the cellular telephone. "Actually It is our main competitor:”
The people still send letters? Very few.
As an example, in 2002,the post office processed 5 billion letters.
In 2008, they did not reach 3 billion. In this year, only 10% are people to people.
What was the damage to the Post office? Nothing!
Each year reaches a new invoicing record.
In 2008 it was over 11 billion Reals.
As the economy was heated, we have gained in customer base.
The new products, like Sedex 10 and services use the Internet.
The great challenge is to confront the move of letters to electronic formats. We process the bills for residential light, telephone and water, and this is growth. We believe that soon this correspondence will be delivered by email when trustworthy digital certification is more common.
The post office is adapting to the internet for example,the public can send a telegram via the Internet: log on to the Post Offices site and write - the Post office prints and delivers.
The delivery of Internet purchases is an area that the Brasilian Post office is very efficient and economical at processing, beating the courier companies inside the country.
One major challenge is cellular phones, due to SMS messages.
The cellular operators generated millions of letters
This is a significant competitor.
We already sell the cellular daily recharge card and we also carry out the recharging of the cards.
The strategic choice is uniting with cellular phones and growing with it. In the short term, the post office needs to become logistical partner of the operators.
As an example, repair services for the phones, the operators will the Post office to send to assistance and then return to the customer
Another idea, in the long run,is to become a reseller of cellular time credits. The Post office can buy a few thousand minutes for 300 Reals and would resell the credit for 400 Reals .
This is already SOP at European Post offices.
Mumbai attacker claims he is a juvenile
If he's old enough to kill with sophisticated weapons at random, he's old enough to be tried as an adult and executed as one.
This goes for the Somalian pirate who is in the USA for trial and turning the process topsy-turvy by having his "parents" claim he's 15 or 16... He's on the high seas looking to capture a ship under the threat of murder... he's a pirate, he's a killer, he's an adult!!
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Alcohol fuel and vast opportunites right now
There is an obvious increase of the international groups coming to Brazil, interested in potential long-term investments.
The choice for ethanol as THE substitute for fossil fuels is attracting these investors to be in Brazil at an increasing rate.
At the DATAGRO congress there were at least 30 delegations from various destinations looking to learn and investigating present and projected production facilities.
The Brazilian sugar/alcohol industry is fragmented.
A level of processing of around 50 million tons of cane, the largest producer controlling only 5% of the market means that there are many opportunities for investment.
On the other hand, this producer’s output is equivalent to 5 times the sugar per year from Cuba.
Home-made Bomb explodes in Brasilan Embassy in Chile
It's been a long time since this sort of activity has occured and there's nor evident reason for this to happen.
Freedom for Plantation owner Accused of having American Missionary Murdered
Who has money ...walks.
Brasilan Public Figures on Tax-paid Tourism
We can expect the usual denials and ironic comments as the politicians once again demonstrate the complete freedom from responsibility and accountability they feel and demonstrate.