A Scenario Under Which Rousseff Gets Impeached in Brazil
In Brazil a few weeks ago, I asked a former official from Dilma Rousseff’s government whether his old boss would be impeached. “Forgive me for being politically incorrect,” he said, “but only if the poor take to the streets.” Ah, Brazil, where even in moments of high political drama, the class divide reigns supreme. But … Read more
Brazil, Heaven and Hell in the Same Day
Last Thursday began beautifully, deep in the Brazilian Amazon, with a walk through a lush city park. I strolled among bougainvillea and castanha do Pará and samaúma trees. I saw a large red and blue macaw ambling down the sidewalk, and had just sat down to take a selfie with him when the little jerk … Read more
A Batalha Pela Amazônia
Nosso barco deslizava calmamente sobre o rio Tapajós, quando, de forma inesperada, a monotonia hipnótica da Amazônia foi quebrada por pequenos corpos saltando na água. Um punhado de crianças da tribo local Munduruku havia se pendurado em árvores ao longo da margem do rio. Ao nos ver chegando, elas pularam na água escura, subiram a … Read more
Health Education in the Amazon? Go to the Movies
In a scene from Parente, a documentary short about sexually transmitted diseases in the Amazon, indigenous Yanomami woman giggle during a sex education class as they pass around and examine an unwrapped condom. For all the sensitivities and complexity behind the foreignness with which they approach the idea of safe sex, the portrait of the … Read more
Garbage Is Choking the Amazon’s Biggest City
Maria da Conceição Peixote has lived in a floating house on the Igarapé do Quarenta, one of the two longest waterways in Manaus, for most of her life. “I can’t afford to move,” says the 63-yearold housekeeper. “But it’s hard.” Da Conceição and her husband, Natanel Baima de Oliveira, 60, a produce vendor, are among … Read more
The Perverse Justice of São Paulo’s Slums
Paperback, 192 pages Graham Denyer Willis doesn’t go as far as calling Brazil a failed state in his book The Killing Consensus, but anyone looking to support such a claim would find plenty of evidence in this examination of a São Paulo crime syndicate and the underpaid and often corrupt homicide investigation unit tasked with … Read more
The Food World’s Hottest Ingredient Has “Roots” in Seduction
This article is adapted from the Fall 2015 print edition of Americas Quarterly. To subscribe, please click here What began as an aromatic oil used by indigenous tribes in the art of seduction has quickly become one of the Brazilian Amazon’s most popular exports. At first glance, it’s easy to dismiss the priprioca, a grass-like … Read more
Turning a Slash-and-Burn Capital into One of the Amazon’s Greenest Places
In 2007, the Brazilian government named the municipality of Paragominas, in Pará state, one of the biggest culprits for deforestation of the Amazon. Ranchers there were responsible for the loss of 156 square miles of forest per year. But just a few years later, Paragominas was being hailed as a model for sustainable development in … Read more
Vamos reduzir o desmatamento a zero. Saiba como.
Read in English Quando Theodore Roosevelt explorou a Amazônia um século atrás, ele ficou encantado com o poderoso rio que corria “de oeste a leste, do poente à aurora, dos Andes ao Atlântico”. No diário de viagem do ex-presidente americano, Nas selvas do Brasil, de 1914, ele descreve poeticamente “as frondosas árvores, o emaranhado de … Read more
Let’s Cut Amazon Deforestation to Zero. Here’s How.
This article is adapted from the Fall 2015 print edition of Americas Quarterly. To subscribe, please click here Versão em português When Theodore Roosevelt explored the Amazon a century ago, he was enthralled by the mighty river that ran “from west to east, from the sunset to the sunrise, from the Andes to the Atlantic.” … Read more
Brazil Progressing in Fight Against Deforestation, Says Environment Minister
This article is adapted from the Fall 2015 print edition of Americas Quarterly. To subscribe, please click here A milestone has been reached in the fight against deforestation in the Amazon. Over the last five years, Brazil has seen the lowest deforestation rates since measurements began in 1988 — capping more than 10 years of … Read more
Three Innovations That Might Save the Amazon
This article is adapted from the Fall 2015 print edition of Americas Quarterly. To subscribe, please click here With each passing day, we lose more of our world’s forests to deforestation and degradation. But the good news is that in recent years, we’ve become considerably more sophisticated in how we try to protect the Amazon … Read more
Why Amazon Tribes Are Losing the Fight Against New Dams – Again
This article is adapted from the Fall 2015 print edition of Americas Quarterly. To subscribe, please click here Versão em português As our boat nudged down the Tapajós river, the hypnotic sameness of the Amazon was shattered by the splash of small bodies. A half-dozen children from the local Munduruku tribe had been dangling from … Read more
What an Economic Recovery in Brazil Might Look Like
Now might seem like an odd time to look for signs of hope in Brazil. Dilma Rousseff has an approval rating of just 10 percent, she faces possible impeachment proceedings, scandal has frozen activity at the country’s biggest companies, inflation runs around 10 percent and the economy is expected to shrink 3 percent this year. … Read more
What’s Happening on Rio’s Beaches?
A civil society group is resisting government efforts to restrict access to some Rio de Janeiro beaches, announcing a plan for thousands of the city’s favela residents to travel en masse to a popular Ipanema beach on October 4. Papo Reto Coletivo, an independent media group based in Rio’s expansive Complexo do Alemão favela, is coordinating the event to … Read more
