An environmental vision.

American Hardwood Export Council, an organization that represents “companies and trade associations engaged in the export of a full range of U.S. hardwood products, including – lumber, veneer, plywood, flooring, moulding and dimension materials” – is doing an aggressive effort toward Brazilian furniture industry. The environmental legislation of the country (in force for 70 years) had a consequence: the expansion of forest resources in the U.S. has been greater than its use for 50 years. And they do not have large forested areas. A few years ago, businessman Lawrence Castelan, Florense Furniture (from the south of Brazil) said that he was importing three types of wood from the United States. This is something that is not recent. It is remarkable that Americans export quality wood for emerging countries….

Which are the best Brazilian songs ever?

Which are the best Brazilian songs ever? I can say that seven among the 10 best were composed by Tom Jobim, according to a panel of experts. The big winner: his song Águas de Março.

More than 200 Brazilian journalists, musicians and cultural icons were asked to name their three favorite national tunes starting in 1917 when “Pelo Telefone” (On the Phone), the first Brazilian samba, was recorded by Donga. “Which is the all-time best Brazilian song?” was the question presented.

Voters were suposed to analyse: melody, lyrics, some historical reason, and even sentimental motives. Jobim’s “Águas de Março”, from 1972, was the champion, but his name was also remembered for “Chega de Saudade” (3rd place, from 1958), “Retrato em Branco e Preto” (6th place, 1968) and “Garota de Ipanema” (7th place, 1963). Jobim was again considered for “Corcovado” (1960) and “Desafinado” (1958, a tie in 9th place) and “Wave (Vou Te Contar)” (1967, 10th place). Tom Jobim had 32 of his songs cited!

Composer Chico Buarque de Hollanda had the same number of tunes remembered. Surprisingly, Jorge Ben came in second with 22 tunes mentioned. Only his 1963 song “Mas que Nada”, however, won enough votes to be included among the 10 most memorable songs.

Caetano Veloso had 20 compositions mentioned, which gave him the third place in this category.

In 1999, a search for the best Brazilian songs of all times promoted by Globo TV Network found that Ary Barroso’s “Aquarela do Brasil” (“Brazil”) was the favorite. This time the results were less chauvinistic. Jobim, with a total of 110 mentions, came well ahead of the second most cited composer, Chico Buarque, who got 69 nods. Vinicius de Moraes (48 mentions) came in third for his collaborations with Jobim, Chico Buarque, Baden Powell, Carlos Lyra, Edu Lobo and Toquinho. Caetano Veloso and Jorge Ben tied in fourth place with 34 citations.

The fifth place went to Roberto and Erasmo Carlos, a duo famous for their romantic ballads. They were remembered 24 times by the illustrious panel of voters.

Interestingly enough, the most memorable “Águas de Março” interpretation, which serves as reference for all the other versions, is the one sung by the duet Elis & Tom. Elis Regina didn’t like Tom Jobim and didn’t hide her dislike for the maestro whom she called “a bore”, “dim-witted”, and “old fogey” in the backstage, in 1974, when the Elis & Tom LP was being recorded. Elis, however, needed to revitalize a career that was being derailed by bad press from critics who were demanding more sophistication from her. The partnership with old Tom made the trick for her. “Águas de Março” appeared on a super brief venture of alternative tabloid Pasquim into the music business. The nonconformist publication in 1972 decided to release simple compacts—a record with a song on each side of the old vinyl disc—to reveal new talents. To guarantee success for the record, their proposal was to release on the other side of the disc an unpublished tune by a famous composer. The new composers were rookies João Bosco and Aldir Blanc with “Agnus Dei”. Jobim became their godfather in the recording, with “Águas de Março”. There would be only one more release in the collection: that of Fagner being presented by Caetano Veloso.

Women were barely mentioned in this selection. Rita Lee is the first woman to show up in the list. The feisty rocker was mentioned 15 times what guaranteed her an 11th place together with samba composer Cartola. Besides Lee, only Chiquinha Gonzaga and Dolores Duran were remembered. They showed up at the bottom of the list with four mentions each. A big name like Maysa was never mentioned. More recent composers like Marisa Monte, Adriana Calcanhotto, and Zélia Duncan also were snubbed. Talking for her colleagues, Rita Lee offered some explanation for this oversight: “Women are quantitatively less present in several areas. Only recently we started appearing while patriarchy exists for centuries.

Chiquinha Gonzaga is from a time when men would say, “Music is man’s occupation”. Dolores Duran was from a time when guys would say, “Women who compose are whores.” I’m from a time when Tubby’s Boy’s Only Clubhouse used to say, “To make rock you ought to have balls.” Cássia Eller is from a time when people say, “You need to be a macho-woman to make music like a man.” My granddaughter will be from a time when they will say, “Only a woman could make such a good song.”

Ranking of the best: 1st “Águas de Março” (Tom Jobim) /2nd “Construção” (Chico Buarque) /3rd “Chega de Saudade” (Tom Jobim &Vinicius de Moraes)/4th “Carinhoso” (Pixinguinha & João de Barro) /5th “Aquarela do Brasil” (Ary Barroso) /6th “Detalhes” (Roberto Carlos & Erasmo Carlos) /”Retrato em Branco e Preto” (Tom Jobim & Chico Buarque) ” /As Rosas Não Falam” (Cartola) /7th “Asa Branca” (Luiz Gonzaga & Humberto Teixeira) /”Domingo no Parque” (Gilberto Gil) /”Garota de Ipanema” (Tom Jobim & Vinicius de Moraes) /8th “Mas Que Nada” (Jorge Ben) /”Sua Estupidez” (Roberto Carlos & Erasmo Carlos) /9th “Baby” (Caetano Veloso) /”Corcovado” (Tom Jobim) /”Desafinado” (Tom Jobim & Newton Mendonça) /”Panis et Circencis” (Caetano Veloso & Gilberto Gil) /”Pérola Negra” (Luiz Melodia) /”Três Apitos” (Noel Rosa) /”Tropicália” (Caetano Veloso) /10th “Beactress” (Edu Lobo & Chico Buarque) /”Dora” (Dorival Caymmi) /”Eu e a Brisa” (Johnny Alf) /”O Homem da Gravata Florida” (Jorge Ben) /”Inútil” (Roger Moreira) /”Ouro de Tolo” (Raul Seixas) /”Wave (Vou Te Contar)” (Tom Jobim).

Source: www.brazil-brasil.com

If you like to listen any of them, tell me and I will send it to you.

News on Brazil GNP

The Brazilian Government will announce the GNP results for 2nd quarter next week. Our economy grew something around 1.8 and 2.0. Brazil has hired the P.R. consultant Fleischman Hillard (NY) – one of the most expensive in the world – to invite national and international journalists, analysts and other VIPs to discuss our perspectives with Brazilian Minister, Guido Mantega. The meeting will be on Monday.

The figures on our GNP indicate the economy is healthy and can grow, although it will be a slow growth, for several reasons:

1 – Despite 2^nd quarter figures are higher than last quarter, when compared to same period in 2008 shows negative performance.

2 – Investments (factories, infrastructure, and so on) that had been very high for last 3 years, fell dramatically since the 2^nd half of 2008. Brazil is supposed to have lost something like 150 billion reais in investments that did not come here. It means less capacity for growth.

3 – The Government plans heavy investment in infrastructure that includes:

a) 34 billion reais for “trem bala” – a straight railroad line between Sao Paulo and Rio, with tunnels, bridges and so on, to be built in less than 4 years (a world record), which environmental licenses have not been obtained at present;

b) oil – about 100 billion reais are planned to buy equipment to the Petrobras project,

and so on…

When talking about infrastructure investments we are talking about trillions of dollars that the Government does not have.

Of course it will be paid by us, with taxes increase.

3 – Central Bank kept interest rate to 8.75 (interest rate among banks). It is the smallest last years. The rate – less expected inflation – is around 4.8 – a record in Brazilian standards despite very high when you compare with other countries (around zero or 1%). The new level indicates that Brazil is on the road to lower levels, following international trends. Brazil has come a long way toward stability but there is still much to do.

The good news is that Sao Paulo industry (almost half of Brazilian industry) begins to show recovery.

The bad news is that the Government has increased the public debt that now amounts to almost 40% of GNP. All the figures are growing in the Government expenditures – salaries, etc.

It means that we can expect new taxes. This is bad because our tax burden is very high – 36/37% and tax on wages is also high – 50% – while in other countries is 10% / 15%.

Last Worldwide bank ranking listed Brazil in 145^th position among 181 countries in the tax field. And last but not least, we have the worst tax system you can imagine. Companies go crazy hiring people and investing in IT to face the strong demand of control and routines in the tax system.

In the balance, you can see that we are not competitive and we can expect low growth… but Brazil can always surprise you! Fleischman Hillard is working very hard on that. You can expect good news on Brazil this week, starting with the launch of Forum Mundial Report, today, indicating that our competitiveness is much better: in a sample of 133 countries we are now in the 56^th position!

Single tax, an old ideal in Brazil.

Globalization is eroding the efficiency of conventional taxes, such as value added taxes. At the same time, a new form of taxation, levied on bank transactions, was used in Brazil (1993-2007) and proved to be evasion-proof, more efficient and less costly than orthodox tax models.

The significant revenue-raising capacity of bank transactions taxation revived the centuries old ideal of the single tax.

The book of Marcos Cintra, a Brazilian that is a full-professor and vice-president of the Getulio Vargas Foundation in Brazil, just launched in USA, carries out a qualitative and quantitative in-depth comparison of the efficiency, equity and compliance costs of a bank transactions tax relative to orthodox tax systems, and opens new perspectives for the use of modern banking technology in tax reform across the world.

Take a look at the Book at Amazon website: Bank transactions: pathway to single tax ideal.

Almost 80% of Brazilians have a mobile.

Anatel, the agency that regulates communication in Brazil, just announced that the total number of cell phones in Brazil are 152.364.986 (Feb 2009) which amounts to almost 80% of the number of inhabitants in the country.

One can presume that people are high-tech down here but the truth is that many has two or more mobiles.

The mobile concentration is, of course, in Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and other big cities in Brazil. So is the number of cell phones per person. In Rio de Janeiro, for instance, each person has more than one mobile.

Image from www.all4humor.com

Dubai, a Brazilian object of desire.

Brazil international calendar starts with Gulfood Fair – United Arabian Emirates. This food and hospitality trade fair registered almost 40,000 trade professionals in 2008 and its 14^th edition will be on Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre from 23 to 26^th February 2009, Carnival period in Brazil.

The Emirates signed a cooperation intent agreement with Mercosur countries in 2005, aiming to configure a free trade area, but negotiations are frozen with no estimated data for a closure. This is not a problem for the most interested sectors like airplanes, automobiles, motorcycle, shoes, furniture and food and beverage.

Anticipating Gulfood, Apex will lead 40 Brazilian companies that will offer a gourmet experience to importers from 11 Arabian countries – Saudi Arabia, UAE, Iran, Lebanon, Egypt, Yemen, Oman, Kuwait, Syria, Jordan and Catha – in an event called Flavors of Brazil (Sabores do Brasil) that will take place in Feb 20th and 21st. As Brazil has always a friendly face, each participant will receive a book on The Arab Influences in Brazilian Life. Its last chapter is on Arabian recipes according to the “vision” of Brazilian chefs.

In March or April a diplomacy appointment: the visit of the Brazil’s President to UAE.

In the same period, an Apex Business Center will be launched in Dubai. Meanwhile, Emirates started a direct flight Sao Paulo – Dubai recently and Dubai Tourism Department is opening a representative office in Sao Paulo in order to follow up the increasing interest Brazilians have in Dubai.

Deep Ecology

The first notice I received about Arne Naess death caused me sadness but, after minutes, a certain anger because I suddenly realized we had lost the opportunity to have this man and his relevant ideas with us in Brazil. I wondered why so many brilliant minds never came here, looking to Brazil as a distant country, immersed in Carnival and summer, to be known one day and nothing more… But, as Spinoza said, “Emotion, which is suffering, ceases to be suffering as soon as we form a clear and precise picture of it“. By the way, Spinoza and Gandhi had strong influence on Arne Naess thoughts. So, I decided to reflect a little deeper on the reasons I was anger.

At the same month Mr. Naess died, Brazil is about to realize the World Social Forum 2009, created on an idea of a Brazilian man in 2001, and now a healthy Swiss foundation, which works as an UN consultant and is financed by more than 1,000 international companies. The event stimulates reflective thinking of “groups and movements of civil society that are opposed to neoliberals and to domination of the world by capital and any form of imperialism, and are committed to building a planetary society directed towards fruitful relationships among Humankind and between it and the Earth.” I am not sure but these last paragraphs seem to be full of irony. Shadow of my anger? Let me try reflecting a little more then because I do not like unfair things.

The movement was created aiming to oppose the World Economical Forum in Davos. It evolved to specific discussions. The first and second events were around four areas: production of wealth, sustainability, political power and ethics. The third event brought also themes like democracy, media, and militarization besides the first ones. The 4^th event discussed information, environment and rights and equality, besides militarization and what they called transversal themes such as imperialist globalization, patriarchy, castes and racism, and religion like fundamentalism. The 5^th event (India) was extensive, including all past themes and others like: art, communication, diversity, genres, human rights, autonomous thinking. The polycentric 6^th event, held in Africa, Venezuela and Pakistan brought discussions on environmental issues at least in two of these places. The 7^th FSM, in Kenya (2007) brought poverty and inclusion subjects among the usual ones. And so on…

The interesting characteristic of FSM, being a horizontal open space for exchange and discussions, is that it allows all this diversified approach, encompassing all mankind issues. The first themes remain and others are progressively aggregated in order to better evaluate what is happening in the world. That is why environmental question was growing up, until now, in the 2009 FSM event, that is held exact in the main forest area the capitalism is fighting for – Amazon forest. Nothing less than 12% of all planetary forests.

Arne Naess did not come to Brazil but certainly this 2009 Forum will have his ideas spread on the many discussions the event will conceive. Ten goals guide the 2009 event and the last one is “the defense of the environment (amazonic and others ecosystems) as source of life for the planet Earth and for the originary peoples of the world (indigenous, afro-descendent, tribal and riverine), that demand their territories, languages, cultures, identities, environmental justice, spiritually and right to live.”

I was anger because Brazil did not realize who Arne was. Probably Jose Lutzemberger, the Brazilian ecologist which ideas were so closed to Arne Naess, had already made the sufficient contact with him, concerning ethics. His participation in more than 40 international events must have impressed him with so many good ideas like Arne´s ones. He was decisive to put Brazil away of the atomic bomb plans. He died in 2002 and, surprisingly, it was his decision to be buried naked, wrapped in a sheet of linen, no coffin, that is, with no impacts to the environment in a manner consistent to with his life.

I must confess: these reflections made my sadness turn into a good feeling. I have the sensation that, by different ways and levels, all countries are getting together in the same consciousness about the meaning of this planet to our complex life and soul and vice-versa. In a way, naked Lutzemberg and Arne Naess are looking, from the high point of a paradise mountain, to the way we evolve here to the deep ecology.

World Social Forum 2009 – Belém, PARA – Brazil. www.fsm2009amazonia.org.br

Photo: Belém, in the State of Para, Brazil: Ver-o-Peso market, created in the Brazilian Colonial historical period. It is the largest free fair in Latin America. Belem is the territory for WSF 2009.

Respect for local culture.

Brazilians are enjoying a series of posts about India in the blog www.meioemensagem.com.br/diariodebordo/pordentrodaindia/

This is a very good initiative as the so called Brics should really know each other better.

Last post was on India tradition of arranged marriages, still real for this country. In India culture a pre-planned marriage is a symbol of love.

PepsiCo respected the local scent and made a TV ad on its product Kurkure in the middle of the presentation of the groom to the family. The bride’s father analyses the groom and think that he is apparently very “delicate”. The groom eats Kurkure and starts performing a real “macho”, then convincing everyone. See the ad below.

That’s why PepsiCo leads the Indian “cola” market instead of Coca Cola. Coca Cola’s ads follow the world campaign and do not pay attention to local culture.

The reading of this post on PepsiCo respect for local culture in India reminded me of the recent movie The Hulk (2008) and its disrespect for Brazil’s “guarana”, a local soda. Guarana drinks and sodas are very popular in Brazil (where guarana is considered to be a health tonic), almost as popular as cola-based sodas. Sweet, carbonated guarana drinks include the popular brands Guaraná Antarctica, Guaraná Brahma, and Kuat (from Coca-Cola Company).

The first scenes of Hulk are located in Brazil, at the Rocinha (favela) and at a factory that produces “guarana”. Some errors are made at these scenes in Brazil. Movie’s enthusiasts already have noticed it: 1) packages of guarana bottles where ‘Brasil / U.S.A’ is printed on the side to show its destination. However, while Brasil is depicted with its Portuguese spelling, the acronym for the United States of America in Portuguese is ‘E.U.A.’ for Estados Unidos da América, not ‘U.S.A.’. 2) During the Brazil chase scene, the time of day appears to change from night to day and back to night again.

These are not the main mistakes however. The idea of a country whose native product, the so called guarana, is produced under so bad circumstances that a drop of Hulk blood falls into a bottle is an incredible (Hulk) mistake. Brazilian Guaraná is distributed in 1 million points of sales in Brazil and it is the third major world market of sodas. Today, the guaraná flavor is the 4th most consumed in the world and Guaraná Antarctica is among the 15 sodas most sold in the planet. Of course you will see Coca Cola in a lot of scenes of this movie. Bad marketing.

Hulk script is not just disrespectful to Brazil culture but also to people’s I.Q.

See the good PepsiCo Indian movie made by JWT ad agency in India.

While some are recognized for their world peace effort…

Today Brazil, among other countries in the G20 team, is discussing with industrialized G7 countries what has to be done to rescue the financial industry. It is very interesting to see how difficult is to the countries to put their different perspectives together.

The French finance minister, Christine Lagarde has said yesterday: “Don’t imagine that we’ll have a harmonized response that will be the same for everybody because you can’t apply the same method to different market situations.”

Japan is concerned about damage the financial crisis not of its own making (italic is ours) can provoke in its industry and, consequently, in its biggest banks that heavily lend to industry. Italia asks for a tougher plan or they will not sign it.

Germany is reluctant, fearing that an agreement to nationalize banks would end up bailing out the banks of its neighbors. Britain demands coordinated guarantees and waves to other countries deposits (hey, come here, trust me, and come to our British-style guarantee of loans…).

Outside G7 or G20, the same conflicts. Inside USA, McCain starts the campaign “Chicago way” denouncing bad partners of Obama, as terrorists leader, another corrupted person and so on, with the alert: “There’s more you need to know”. Are them trying to overcome crisis with another one? Inside Italy, a politic criticizes Berlusconi telling that the crisis is not a “disco” where he can say jokes.

Blogs are full of comments of ordinary people, in the same tune as London: “Why should we pay for their crisis?”, “I told you so”. Now the State will pay the bill which means that we, the people, will pay the bill with our taxes, while all this time just banks had profits. In Brazil, bloggers are criticizing Lula’s speech: go for a big Christmas shopping, my people.

All these scenes, initiatives, words and people should stop for a while and look to other side, other scenes, not so glamorous and poorly announced by media, but most important than these, in two steps.

First: we should change our position from critics to respect and support. What about the Japanese traditional salutation to start this change?

Second: we would have to listen to the men that are being celebrated this week for their work on peace among nations.

The first one is Kofi Annan that received Westfalia Peace Prize in German and that also received Nobel Peace Prize in 2001. His words: international financial markets are guided by an old-fashioned system that must be changed.

The other is the Former President Martti Ahtisaari of Finland, who has worked to end conflicts in troubled spots around the world for more than three decades, and that won the 2008 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday. He had an important role helping to resolve disputes involving delicate matters of ethnicity, religion and race. After knowing about his indication as 2008 Nobel Peace Prize he said: “I hope this… tells about our society and what is important to us.”

Many have been said about peace.

Now it is time to remember the actions, plans and words of those who performed peace through all these years of neo-liberal policies, in order to bring harmony to the mind of the people that led our countries economy and decide about the money energy flow in the world.

1st picture: Luke McGregor/Reuters. “Demonstrators clashed with police in the financial district of London on Friday” (on New York TImes article from Oct 10th, 2008).

2st picture: Takeo Nakazono, center, president of Yamato Life Insurance, at a conference Fryday in Tokyo. Kyoto, via Reuters. (on New York Times article from Oct 10h, 2008).

Nova Jerusalém

The biggest open air event in the world, according to Brazilian press, is the Holy Week celebration at Nova Jerusalém, a city located in Pernambuco, a northeast Brazilian state. 2008 is its 41st edition and about 80 thousand people are supposed to watch the spectacle this week, that involves a thousand artists among main charaters and others. The open air theather has 100 thousand square meters. Artists move thru diversified scenarios during the death and ressurrection of Christ, while assistants follow their steps, watching the presentation. The presentations started March 15th and go thru March 22nd. A real and astonishing religious effort of everyone that is involved.