Search
Content : 3757
Content View Hits : 29521327
Who's Online
We have 604 guests onlineUser Menu
Login Form
|
July 2006
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Custom Search
Members : 17359
Content : 3757
Content View Hits : 29521327
Content : 3757
Content View Hits : 29521327
The latest affair to rock the Brazilian republic, involving more than 100 congressmen charged with accepting kickbacks in exchange for getting the purchase of ambulances in the Federal budget, is no amateur scheme. Dubbed the Ambulances Mafia or the Escândalo dos Sanguessugas (Leeches Scandal), the case is an intricate and elaborate piece of trickery and deceit. 
So where did this year's World Cup gathering in Germany leave the once-capable soccer capital of Brazil in the overall 2006 team standings? Well, as the old Beatles song so fondly recalled for us, "Nowhere Man," down and out in Frankfurt, and not even qualified for the semifinal round in Munich's Olympiastadion.
The Brazilian companies are taking up better and better positions in the list of the great international companies, and already have assets worth US$ 55 billion abroad. The information was disclosed yesterday, July 27, during the seminar International Business - Perspectives for Developing Countries, at the Brazilian advertising and marketing university ESPM, in São Paulo. 
Contrary to the usual outcome of Washington's subsidies to U.S. farmers, recent grants for ethanol producers could actually improve many lives, both at home and abroad. As the Bush administration aggressively encourages the production of ethanol, a renewable, more environmentally friendly biofuel, to replace increasingly pricey gasoline in automobiles, domestic and foreign corn markets will have to undergo some major adjustments. 
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) has been well ahead of his main rival Geraldo Alckmin (PSDB) in opinion polls, but a recent poll published by DataFolha shows an unexpected rise in support for the third runner, Senator Heloísa Helena (PSOL). This could mean that Lula may have to face Alckmin in a second round of voting and not achieve the victory he had been hoping for in the first round.