Brazzil

A new United Nations study shows that it is enough for someone to leave the Gávea neighborhood in Rio and go up the hill to Rocinha favela to lose 13 years in life expectancy and go back in time almost one century. If there is any consolation for Cariocas, the disparity between rich and poor is larger elsewhere in the country.
By Brazzil Magazine

I hope your target audience are not Brazilians.... First and last time I get in contact with your product. Biased and reflecting an American way to describe events (no regard for local culture), your magazine really has no other purpose than to attack Brazilian with your mediocre writing ability. Go Yankees!

I think the church in Brazil should get real. This idea of angel and devil is rubbish. The reality is people in Carnaval, or any other time are making sex without protection and dying as a consequence of that. The sad thing about that is that the church in Brazil instead of helping the government in the fight against AIDS try to confuse the people more and more. People need protection and the best protection for them is the education of how to protect themselves. The church also has to become more modern and understand that prayers do not save the world... Hard work and education is the best answer for most things. Prayers may help with hope, but we have to get up and do our jobs.

Dear Bruce, thank you for your wonderful interview and comments on Virginia Rodrigues, which I found on the Internet. A few months ago I was seeking from the Internet all the versions I could find of the song "Manhã de Carnaval". Among them was Virginia's and I was startled and amazed at the beauty. Right away I acquired what I could of her recordings. Lua lua lua, Salvador no inerte, Fogo de justiça. How amazing. So when I learned she was touring Perth, I sent my five Perth friends, from two different families, to see her, and they were astounded and enthralled, and grateful to me.

And when she came to perform in Washington I went, and brought nine friends with me. Not only did she fully satisfy my expectations, I experienced for the first time three wonderful musicians who accompanied her: guitar player Luís Brazil, a wonderful percussionist, and wonderful flute/sax/guitar/percussion player whose name I did not get, but who was most elegant. I got such good feelings from every single one of these people, and from their wonderful ensemble playing.

Ms. Thompson, I just got through reading your piece on João Gilberto. Wonderful. I have not stopped listening to João since I discovered him in early 1999. I began playing guitar because of his music and now I can sing, in Portuguese, about ten bossa nova songs. It's so nice to know more about João and his life. If you would like one of my recordings say, "Água de Beber", "Garota de Ipanema", "Águas de Março", "Só Vou Pra Casa" or maybe something else, just say so. I can send it via an MP3 file. Bossa nova must prevail for world peace! Sorry if I get excited but bossa nova jazz is the most ataractic element in my life. It has set me free. Thanks again for the rich article.

In the article "Bush and Cardoso Mini Summit" there was plenty of comments made by both men on working together. Like most Americans I supported the other candidate in the election. Many of us feel that the Supreme Court made the decision for us. I personally believe that Mr. Bush will put heavy emphasis on military matters and tax cuts for high-wage earners. I also recall from an election debate that Mr. Bush will emphasize relationship building with countries that have traditionally received a high amount of attention from the US. This means Europe and Japan mainly. I have heard him state that Mexico will also receive increased attention. I believe that African nations and Latin American nations (Brazil, Colombia, etc.) will be on the low priority list in the Bush administration. In my opinion this is unfortunate because I believe that friendly nations in the same hemisphere as the U.S. such as those in the Caribbean and Latin America have been taken for granted for too long.

We are four high school students who are doing a project on the expansion of the Bolsa-Escola education reform program in Brazil. Brazilian children frequently drop out of school or miss numerous school days because they instead must work to supplement their families' income. As a result, the Brazilian population suffers from low education levels in comparison to other upper-middle income countries. Sixty-seven percent of children drop out of primary school to go to work. Seven million Brazilian children work for meager wages. This high absenteeism and dropout rate leads inexorably to a cycle of poverty that can and must be broken.

The Bolsa-Escola program, a program already in existence in Mexico and Brazil's capital, Brasília, gives families financial incentives to keep their children, ages 7 to 14, in school. The government pays parents who keep their children in school approximately the same amount that these children would earn by working. The Bolsa-Escola has proven to be a huge success. It has reduced dropout rates and grade repetitions. 1996, this program sponsored 22,493 families and 44,382 children in Brasília.

The program offered parents $128 per month and $90 for every year that each of their children passed a grade after the first attempt. While these incentives greatly benefited each individual family, it cost the government less than one percent of the Federal District's budget. Since the inception of the program, the dropout rate has decreased significantly from 10 percent to .4 percent and the additional family income has contributed to improved family nutrition and health care.

In addition to benefiting the low-income families that its targeting, the cities in which the Bolsa-Escola program is established also are seeing vast improvements in their economy. The program has indirectly caused an influx of resources into the local economy, increased the demand for goods, advanced education quality and decreased child labor. The Bolsa-Escola program has already made a real difference to those families living in poverty in Brasília and Mexico. Now is the time to expand this program throughout Brazil.

We are four high-school girls living in the D.C. area. After reading about the Bolsa-Escola program in Brasília and Mexico, we thought it would be a helpful program to have in other parts of Brazil. Please feel free to send any emails to rbrevard86@aol.com 

Vera Zienema is a film theatre in Groningen, The Netherlands. Together with other cinemas we are organizing the fourth Cultfilm Festival, planned for September 2001. A main part of our program consists of films that are not available in our country. One of the films we'd like to import is Escorpião Escarlate by Ivan Cardoso. I found your site on the Internet and there are some things I'd like to ask:

Do you have a copy of the film or do you know where we can find one? Is it possible to show the film at the Cultfilm Festival? What are the costs for screening? Is there a preview-tape and if so can you send a copy? I hope you can give us some information on these issues, please let us know. For more information you can send us an e-mail.

Hello. I'm an American MBA student who found your site extremely useful in researching what market (if any) might exist in Brazil for importing Ecuadorian coffee. Thanks for the course in Coffee 101.

I wonder if you know where to find a Rio de Janeiro coffee (dark roasted, strong, black coffee). I can't find it all over in New York where I live. I need your help. I wanted to buy a few packages of Rio coffee for my friend's birthday.

I've come across your magazine at Radio Educativa where I produce three programs on classical music, one exclusively devoted to Brazilian Composers. I am a composer myself as well as a musicologist. I would like to introduce you to some of my music as I have noticed you have already issued an article on music from Curitiba. Please, visit my website http://sites.uol.com.br/harrycrowl

Harry Crowl - harrycrowl@uol.com.br  
Brazil

I live in New York and I am working on a school paper about the problem of street children in Brazil. Actually, my paper is about materialism in the US vs. Brazil. I was wondering if you had any pictures, video, etc. anything, that you could send me to help with my oral presentation. I am willing to pay for whatever. Just a little background: I would love to move to Brazil someday. My goal is to open an orphanage there. I have been studying Portuguese and saving in order to come down. While in school, I would like to use this opportunity to show people here that our problems are not as bad as other places.

I am a Brazilian living in Europe for many years, I get a lot of comments how beautiful is Brazil, but every one thinks that Brazil is very dangerous. And is not much advertised like other countries.

M friend and I are looking into taking a year off from school. We're both in our third year at university (I'm from Canada, he's from the States) and want to take a break before completing our degrees. I was wondering if you could give me more information about work in Brazil. We saw the suggestion to teach English online and thought that might be a good idea. We were also wondering about available work at resorts and things like that. Any suggestions you have, contacts, or other Internet sites we could look at would be very much appreciated.

Desculpem o mau jeito. Estarei indo à Califórnia no mês de agosto e preciso muito arrumar um trabalho para me manter por um período de seis meses. Alguém pode me ajudar? Tenho 28 anos, sou estudante de publicidade (estarei fazendo alguns cursos na cidade). Obrigado.

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