Here I am in Budapest, interesting city, with beautiful people all around speaking a peculiar language. The whole environment exhales history, but the streets are full of young and interesting people who seem well tuned to the beat of the moment. I could sense many similarities with Brazilians.

The Global Voices Citizen Media Summit 2008, which gathers managers, editors, authors, Lingua sites coordinators, collaborators and other fellow communities that somehow are linked to the Global Voices Online project, is happening here.

As I arrived here, I thought it might be important to mention some aspects of my relationship with GVO — something I’ve never described before. With many simultaneous projects on my plate, it is difficult to properly document the interconnections of what I’ve been developing and implementing, especially when it comes to the “cross-layering” where aspects of one project contribute to other ones.

My collaboration with the GVO community has been invaluable to me, and some aspects are quite present in many other things I’ve been doing. The use of Wordpress at the Brazilian Ministry of Culture wesite, for example, resulted from what I saw happening within the Global Voices community. It’s a wonder that so many collaborators from all parts of the world, remotely contacted and trained at a distance, are able to master the collective use of a common open source publishing platform. I realized that this must be a damn good software solution.

I recognized that such a tool would facilitate the fostering of collaborative environments for content production inside the Ministry of Culture, even in cases where the users held highly diverse levels of computer knowledge. The result of this adaptation of GV’s concept of using Wordpress for the management of an institutional portal has grown and prospered into a full set of plug-ins that we are sharing at Xemelê. We will soon be launching the first Wordpress theme complete with all the Xemelê plug-ins preinstalled, which will consistently help all who feel like implementing the same solution.

Another important lesson I learned as a Global Voices editor was how to make good use of remote networking. I understood that it is possible to transform a wide variety of people from different cultures and languages who have never met into co-workers which is something that you have to see happening in order to believe that it’s possible! Based on this experience, I have conceived and helped implement some projects at the Brazilian Ministry of Culture, among them the Rede Web Mercosur website, which links participants in several South American countries.

There is a special kind of magic behind each of the accomplished online communities, and GVO is no different. Indeed, the GV Summit is great exactly because of what it inspires: it shows (and illustrates) how to enliven the spark that unites bloggers worldwide around these strong words: “The world is talking. Are you listening?“. In fact, global collaboration requires more than inspiration. Such a dynamic global structure operating 24 x 7 demands a lot of work — 90% of which is perspiration, I should say.

It’s been great to meet again dear colleagues like David Sasaki, our fantastic co-manager Georgia Popplewell, and precious teachers like Ethan Zuckerman and Rebecca MacKinnon.  Today was the first day, centered on advocacy for free speech online and coordinated by a great pal: Sami Ben Gharbia.

It was especially interesting to learn about how Internet censorship can be countered with different approaches, using many tools like technical, political and legal aspects, but what emerged as a revelation was the more intimate power of cultural and social censorship. Like when one participant complained that “it is one thing to resist an authoritarian government, another is to confront your own father”, in a case where the local culture is built on censorship. I thoroughly suggest the reading of the ‘live blogging‘ pages for a fascinating discussion of the issue. (photo by Luiz Carlos Dias, click for more)

The author, Monteiro Lobato, is very famous in Brazil for his tales for children and teens. The set of books ‘Yellow Woodpecker Ranch‘ was turned into popular TV series that reigned supreme on Brazilian tubes through 5 different remakes — the first in 1952, and most recently in 2001. But, in this case, the book is an obscure and rare incursion of Lobato into adult science fiction. The resurgence of interest in it now is totally connected with what stands out as an incredible intuitive guesswork on what has come to be our present situation, but 80 years ago (!) almost unimaginable.

Most of the Brazilian readers of Monteiro Lobato (1882-1948) know him for the episodes of the ‘Yellow Woodpecker Ranch’ series, and few are acquainted with his ‘adult piece’… Originally published in 1926 as a ‘feuilleton‘ in the newspaper ‘A Manhã’, (but then titled as “The Clash of Races”, which today stands as the subtitle), “The Black President” is a doubly curious book: first for being a science fiction piece, an uncommon genre among Brazilian writers, and second because the plot anticipates the current scientific and intellectual debate during the first decades of the 20th century.
Monteiro Lobato’s Black President – ALPHARRÁBIO – por Viegas Fernandes da Costa

The huge coincidence with the US elections was enough to turn “The Black President” into ‘cult’ reading, although some other of Lobato’s predictions, such as his description of the Internet, have also attracted the attention of commenters. The contorted political psychology of the triangle that binds the white male, the feminist, and the black candidate is also apparent.

‘The Black President’ is a scary book. Frightening in many ways. Firstly, by the prescient character of the piece. In 1926, Lobato forecasts the invention of a kind of data radio transmission that would make it possible for human beings to accomplish their tasks from their home, without having to relocate to work. He also anticipates the disappearance of the printing press, for the news will be “radiated” directly to the houses of the individuals and will appear in bright letters on a screen — exactly how it is happening with whoever is reading this very text. [It is] in one modern word — the Internet. But the premonitions don’t stop there. By the time he was moving to the US as commercial attaché at the Brazilian embassy, Monteiro Lobato foresaw the election of a black president in the US. The specific political moment in the year of 2228 that bore such a situation would be due to the split that occurred in the white race, between a candidate from the Masculine Party (Kerlog) and a candidate from the Feminine Party (Evelyn Astor). The neo-feminist Evelyn Astor has the victory almost guaranteed, but then the black leader Jim Roy surges and ends up being elected President.
The Black President. A Scary Book – Acerto de Contas

The wars were also finished, as soon as the War Ministries were replaced by the Peace Ministries. Despite that, the US is on the verge of descending into chaos and bloodbath on the eve of the election of its 88th president, such was the disruption caused by the contest. On one side, the millions of black voters are gathered to support Jim Roy, from the Black Association. On the other side, the white women who follow the Feminine Party candidate, long for Evelyn Astor. And finally, there are the white men, who prefer the reelection of Kerlog, from the Masculine Party, which surged from the merge of the Democrat and Republican parties. Here is the essential part of the plot: it is not only a clash of races, but also a war between the sexes. The white men, in order to get a ‘whiter’ America, plan to send the blacks to the Amazon, which is not part of Brazil anymore [!]. Our country was divided in two independent nations: the north, of atavistic malemolencia, and the prosperous South, the “big Republic of Paraná”, which also includes Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay.
Monteiro Lobato… A Prophet? – Resistência Democrática

Even in some of his far-out references, Lobato [caricature with the rag doll Emília, his creation] seems to keep throwing light on images that, if not real, are quite recurrent to say the least. But, on a closer inspection, his plot reveals clearly that, although getting it right on the surface, his interpretation of the signals were often projections of weird concepts. In fact, what previously called attention to this book — prior to the current historical coincidence with the US elections — was the evidence of Lobato’s sympathy with Eugenics, a racist social philosophy that acquired some followers in Brazil during the 20s and 30s, and advocates the improvement of human hereditary traits through various forms of intervention, mainly segregating races.

Miss Jane, Benson’s daughter, is the one who gives voice to Lobato’s ideas: “What is America if not the happy zone which right from the start has attracted the many elements from eugenics of the best European races? Where is the vital force of the white race located if not there?” While defending American segregation, he also has something to say about the Brazilian miscigenetion: “Our solution was shabby. We ruined both races, by merging them. The blacks have lost their admirable wild physical qualities, and the whites have suffered the inevitable worsening of character as a consequence of the crossings among different races”.
Racismo à Brasileira – Bravo Online

Indeed, Obama is definitely not the black candidate of Lobato’s tale, but rather the result of a political, cultural and genetic mix with whites. There is a core difference between the societal position of African descendants in Brazil (more mixed) and in the US (more separated), but Obama’s surge is perceived by some Brazilians as the result of the 70s US affirmative action policies in which these social programs appear now as the game changer.

From a Brazilian perspective, the inevitable question that Afro-descendants are asking themselves now is what has made Obama’s success possible in the US — with their ’segregation’ and separatism — while an analogous situation in more mixed Brazil still looks like a distant dream, far from becoming a reality.

Against all the expectations that already have been here more than a hundred years, “blacks and mestizos will surpass the number of whites in this year of 2008″ in Brazil — “the country with the largest Afro-descendant population outside Africa”… These observations, followed by the finding that the country “does not have any black politician of national projection”, comes with reference to the campaign of Senator Barack Obama for the Presidency of United States… Lagging behind around fifty years in relation to the social conquests of the US black people, we heirs of the same plunder that permeated North American society (and from which Obama, we should make clear, is not a direct victim) are being forced to believe for more than 120 years that this country is “happily mixed and de-racialized”. There has never been segregation or any ku-klux-klan and [therefore] our inferiority is due only to economic problems and can be brought to nil with good schools and good school lunches for all.
OBAMA, HIS ERA AND THE DREAM – AldeiaGriot

In the developing debate over affirmative action and the different perspectives on quota schemes in Brazil it is quite natural to see Obama’s sucess in terms of long-standing tensions, but the effects of his possible election may reverberate differently in the many different layers of culture. If he is elected, the deep psychology that underlies the appearence of such an archetypal persona in history will become a part of the social-political-cultural debate.

Some bloggers are aware of this Obama inherited complexity that is helping to transcend the obvious polarities.

When, years later, [Obama] condemned the Iraq War, his arguments where based on the conclusions he arrived at through his life. His parents tried to reinvent themselves by abandoning their traditions and, in the process, they lost their identities. Tradition is what binds a society together. Facing change, tradition will allways resist. Change, in history, comes in slow steps. For him, there is some naivety in the idealistic American dream that ideas, by themselves, will cause big changes. Ideas are not enough. Barack Obama, as described by Larissa MacFarquhar in a New Yorker Magazine profile, ‘is deeply conservative’. Democracy could never be simply imposed in a country where it never existed.
Who is Barack Obama, and what does he think? – Pedro Dória Weblog

From Lobato’s black president prevailing in a context of separation to the complex profile of Barack Obama in a world of emergent possibilities appears now as the measure of political change.

By leaving the ministry, the ex-rubber tapper and ex-domestic worker, who learned to read only when she was 17 years old [and later to become Brazil's youngest senator at the age of 36], has generated — inside and outside the country — a reverberation that overshadows those that eventually occurred with the fall of former powerful finance ministers. She hopes that her replacement in the ministry, Carlos Minc, will be able to assure the continuity of the government environmental policy, resisting the pressure that comes from Blairo Maggi, the governor of Mato Grosso State who is working against retaining the National Monetary Council resolution that will oblige the financial system to require conforming with environmental regulations as a precondition for access to rural credit in the Amazon…. Marina Silva has declared that when you are in a position of power, even if it is something small (the editor of a newspaper column, for example), we suffer the temptation to look at people from the top down. — “I’ve learned, and it was not now but with many people I had the opportunity to meet along my life, people like Chico Mendes and Dom Moacir Grechi, that we have to look from the bottom up. From the bottom up we are able to watch what is above us. The Amazon is above us. And with such a look we are able to see that, in order to do something that is really good, we have to put ourselves in the perspective of service, which can also mean the gesture of cleaning the path so that another person can take your place. I’ve said before that it’s better to see your son alive on someone else’s lap than to see him dead on your own lap.”
“The Amazon is above us” – Altino Machado

Hey colleagues, get ready! Minc is coming. The new environmental minister will land in Brasilia to have lunch today with ex-minister Marina Silva, and later meet with Lula at the Planalto Palace. From now on, the ministry will not be a sole source of news. Minc is media-minded. He tends to use the Internet, as Marina leans to, should we say, the radio (no disregard here for the radio, on the contrary). He will bustle every single day, and the media will have to appoint reporters to follow him around. On one day, as it happened last week, he is capable of chastising his future colleague Mangabeira Unger from the Special Secretariat for Long Term Actions, the man designated by Lula do run the Sustainable Amazon Program. On another, he is ready to suggest the name of Jorge Viana, an ex-governor from Acre state, to take Mangabeira’s post. Next day, he is ready to praise Unger saying that he is apt to do a great work. Minc is good at manipulating words, ideas and concepts, just like his new boss, Lula. Take a good look at what he said yesterday when asked about the record number of environmental permits to big infrastructure projects granted by him as environmental secretary of Rio de Janeiro State: “You can be fast and rigorous. It is not because it took 3 years that a permit will guarantee protection to the ecosystem. You can wait 3 years lost in bureaucracy and obtain a loose licensing.” The reporters just took note of what he said, and nobody contested. Reporters have little time to think about what they hear, and many of them just don’t know what to think. In this case, Minc has limited himself to banter the provocation addressed at him.
The Amazon is ours? Bullshit! – Blog do Noblat

With his loose vest and long hair, although those are under the risk of extinction, the man is a media event, a machine gun of bombastic sentences. Compared to his predecessor, the discreet Marina Silva, someone who reminds us of an orchid in its fragile exuberance and a very symbol of the cause, Carlos Minc is closer to a mad chainsaw sweeping a soybean plantation.
A matraca solta de Minc – Luis Nassif Online

There has been much speculation about the reasons that led Marina Silva to resign. She has mentioned the lack of political support, and some commenters talk about clashes with Lula’s powerful cabinet chief Dilma Roussef, responsible for the government’s flagship program for accelerated growth. Another strong rumor tells about the designation of Roberto Mangabeira Unger to coordinate an Amazon sustainable development plan as a last blow to the former minister. In fact, the role of Mangabeira — a former Harvard law professor — in the Brazilian environmental policy decision making has become a whole issue unto itself for bloggers.

There are two versions offered for Mangabeira’s designation [to coordinate the Amazon Sustainable Plan - PAS]. The current version inside the PT [Worker's Party], tells about Lula intentionally pushing the former minister [Marina Silva] out with the move. But in the surroundings of the Planalto Palace another tale is being told, which does not completely contradict the other version, but shows signs that the move came as an ‘insight’ from Lula… after all, Mangabeira was not directly involved in the dispute [for the PAS coordination] (among the ministries of Environment, Agriculture, Agrarian Development and National Integration). Lula would have claimed that he could not designate one of these ministrys [to coordinate the PAS] because they would “draw the embers next to their sardine” [put their interests first]… Marina’s ministry has never paid any attention to Mangabaeira’s talks. He tried to have her attention but was ignored, and the Agrarian Development Ministry also showed no enthusiasm for his ideas. Nevertheless, Mangabeira had his allies and reached out to the Amazon — an issue under international scrutiny — to find inspiration for his first writings…. The speech articulated by Mangabeira about the Amazon though, is the speech adopted by the government for the region…. Mangabeira has earned points with Lula when he presented a project which proposes a new relationship model between capital and work.
In less than a year, Mangabeira has amplified his scope, but he is still not confirmed at PAS – Acerto de Contas

Managabeira’s new model asserts that the Amazon must be saved from disorganized economic activity, that it needs a planned relationship between preservation and development. “The only way to preserve the Amazon is to develop it.” And, of course, it is the role of Brazil to do this. Interestingly, a NYTimes article published last weekend (’Whose Rain Forest Is This, Anyway?‘) played an interesting role in the debate, bringing back things like an Al Gore 1989’s remark saying that “contrary to what Brazilians think, the Amazon is not their property, it belongs to all of us”. Bloggers, as expected, respond and comment.

Now, after Europe and North America have polluted the planet as they wished, and that the US refuses to sign the Kyoto Protocol that would help the protection against its polluting industries, they want to land their hands on “the lungs of the Earth”. Which is our Amazon.
NY Times criticizes Brazil for defending the Amazon – Aos Quatro Ventos

If the Amazon Region, from a humanist’s point of view, has to be internationalized, then we should internationalize the oil reserves of the entire the world as well. Oil is just as important to the well being of humanity as the Amazon Region for our future. Nevertheless, the owners of oil reserves feel it is in their right to increase or decrease oil production and to raise or lower the price. The rich of the world, feel they have the right to burn this valuable possession of humanity. Similarly, the financial capital of the wealthy nations should be internationalized. If the Amazon Region is a natural reserve for every human being, then it could not be burned down by the decision of a landowner or a country. To burn down the Amazon Region is so tragic, as the unemployment provoked by the arbitrary decisions of world wide speculators. We cannot permit that the world΄s financial reserves serve to burn down entire nations according to the whims of speculation…. We could internationalize the children treating all of them, regardless of their birthplace, as a posession which deserves the care and attention of the entire world. Even more so than the Amazon Region. When the world leaders attend to the world΄s poor children as possessions of Humanity, they will no longer permit that these children work when they should be studying, that they die when they should be living. As a humanist I accept to defend the internationalization of the world. So long as the world treats me as a Brazilian, I will fight so that our Amazon Region will be ours. Only ours. [this is a re-blogged piece of a classical article by former Brazilian Education minister, Cristovam Buarque]
Cristovam Buarque: Internationalization of the world – Cristovam Buarque – Vi o mundo

The most buzzed issue of the last days, in all news rooms in Brazil, is the Sunday report from the new New York Times correspondent in Brazil, Alexei Barrionuevo, which presents a suggestive title: “Does the Amazon Belong to Brazil – or the whole world?”. From the military base, we can almost hear the unease coming from old generals and colonels in pajamas. But, those who read the text free from prejudices and pre-conceptions, are able to find out one thing: it is an honest piece. It is the typical issue a foreign correspondent recently arrived in Brazil would catch. The article describes the always present local paranoia that someone, somewhere, wants to steal the Amazon from us. It does not speak about a real threat. Those who have known Brazil for a while are not surprised with this debate; those arriving from abroad get startled by the notion embelished in the conspiratory theories from the right….
Yes, Brazil does hold a responsibility before the world to preserve its forest. It is also a responsibility before ourselves. Without the Amazon, there will be no rain from the center-west to the south to irrigate the plantations that are supporting the economic growth, or to fill the hydroelectric reservoirs that lights São Paulo and Rio. So, from a pragmatic point of view, there is no doubt that preserving is good and sound business. How to preserve? Should we close it all and don’t let anybody in? How to distribute land titles to the ones already there? How to implement the law in a land where representatives or policemen kill people with chainsaws? How to develop Brazilian research centers to fixate top scientists from the region or from abroad? Nobody will take the Amazon from us — international politics does not fit such move. But behind the resignation of ex-minister Marina Silva there is just one simple fact. Brazil doesn’t know what to do with its biggest forest. While we do not know what to do with the forest it will continue to be destroyed, and some people among us, induced by this guilty feeling, will keep thinking that someone will take it by force. Maybe because, deep inside, way deep inside, they know that we are indeed guilty for all that.
The Amazon is Ours? – Pedro Dória Weblog

Along the spectrum that lies between preservation and development in regard of public policies, we can still find different aproaches focusing on the cultural richness that bonds the Amazon together in its full splendor. These aspects are shouting to be recognized by everyday facts, but they are not priorities in any of the available political discourses.

It is known today that the knowledge about great part of the Amazonian richness is deeply assimilated in the culture of its native people, addressing the issue of its rational economic exploration directly to the [need to] respect and preserve the ethno-botanical heritage of the forest and its dwellers. Such a concept associates the local wealth with the knowledge acumulated by ancestral cultures of the region, uniting flora, fauna and culture into an intimate connection that presents a synergistic relationship of knowledge, respect, use and preservation. But while the physical and tangible preservation of the ‘people of the forest’ entangles the natural, immunological and medical aspects, the preservation of the cultural aspect holds a strong political component, much more mild and manageable from the point of view of state intervention. Cultural preservation, in common language, means to maintain the conditions for the indigenous populations to keep following its proper way of life, based on ancient beliefs from its ancestors. At the foundation of all this sits these groups’ very ‘cosmic vision’, including their ‘teological myths…. We have the urgent need to conceive the Amazon, and its huge economic possibilities, as an amalgam of inseparable components which necessarily includes the natural and the cultural: the forest and the man.
The forest and the man of the forest, by George Felipe Dantas – Vi o mundo

While in some countries marijuana use is accepted with restrictions, in Brazil the debate on the issue is not even permitted. Talking about marijuana has turned into a taboo, as the march was prohibited by the Public Ministry a few days before scheduled date, leaving no chance for appeals due to the lack of available time. It becomes clear the country is unable to allow its citizens to debate their relationship with some of the problems we have around here. Should we label a demonstration for legal reform as drug use promotion? To debate necessarily means to influence? There are some terms that are not well defined in the heads of the justices, which results in hindering the citizens from claiming their right: the freedom to express themselves.
Tropical Fascism – Obrog!!!

Obviously, court decisions are to be followed, even the ones we consider as unconstitutional, as they hold the necessary presumption of legitimacy for the juridical safety of social and human relations regulated by the law — which is the higher value to be preserved in a legal system. But it does not mean that those decisions can’t be the object of academic and even political debate, under a critical perspective.The right to freedom of expression and to free gathering are guaranteed by the 5th article of our Constitution as fundamental values of the democratic regime. The democratic principle is the constitutional rule that determines not only the adoption of decision by a social or legislative majority, but also — and especially — the protection of the rights of minorities…. To subtract the right to protest against the terms of any law, criminal or not, from part of the citizenry is to injure to death the democratic regime. It subtracts its meaning, and becomes an imperial act, unsuitable for a Legal Democratic State…. If the postulation for the revoking of a law is not safeguarded by the presumption of the right to free expression, which behaviors could be protected by this right? Am I able to express that I am against the current laws, but can’t tell which of them and why?… Now a question starts: should pro-abortion demonstrations and other similar ones be also prohibited? Can it be understood as a promotion of abortion practice, which is a conduct listed in our criminal rule? If it can, the meaning of the Brazilian democracy will vanish.
The Marihuana March and the right to free expression, by Pedro Estavam Serrano – Última Instância

Cannabis was brought to Brazil by the first Africans arriving from Angola, and it’s use and cultivation was encouraged by the Portuguese, which resulted in it being culturally assimilated by the mestizos and by some Indian groups. Medical use was also common, mostly during the second part of the 19th century, and even advertised in Brazilian medical journals up to the first years of the 20th century. Some commenters focused on the cultural aspects of the censorship.

Such prohibition in a city like Salvador, insults the meaning of the ethnic and cultural use of this plant, which is part of the African cultural heritage. About this aspect, Gilberto Freyre [Brazilian sociologist, cultural anthropologist, historian, journalist and congressman] framed it this way: “the religious traditions, as other forms of culture, or black cultures, transported to here, along with the shadows of the sacred trees themselves, with the smell of the very mystical plants — the marijuana, or diamba, for example — are the ones that are resistent in a more profound way, in Brazil, to ‘disafricanization’. It is much more than the blood, the color and the form of the men. Europe won’t win over them.” (Sobrados e Mucambos, 2003, p.797). Could Gilberto Freyre be framed as a marijuana use advocate?
Cultural Democracy and the Marihuana March – Blog Oficial do Tio Tod

Recently, the Minister of Culture Gilberto Gil presented a proposal to register Ayahuasca, an psychoactive mix of plants that composes the Santo Daime and Hoasca tea, as a National Cultural Heritage. If the ‘small death‘ can, why not the ‘Manga Rosa’, the ‘Cabeça de Nego’ and the ‘Cabrobó’ [popular types of Brazilian marijuana]? …. While we don’t reach a consensus, and even less a solution to the problem, the President of the Brazilian Bar Association Federal Council, Cezar Britto, defends the freedom of expression as a fundamental asset of a democratic state: “The biggest evil we can impose to a country is to mute, to censor thought”.
The march that wont’ mute – Viva la Brasa

The 20th century brought about the spreading of the notion of the plant as a great danger to individuals and society, and also a surge of international agreements for the adjustment of national laws criminalizing the use of cannabis. Ecologia Cognitiva offers a good account and links showing how the the early Twentieth Century American movie industry played a key role in disseminating the new cultural references for the plant, and the ideological elements displayed by some commenters adds up to the notion that politics seems to play a role bigger than science when it comes down to defining how harmful cannabis really is.

If we take a closer look to the facts, we clearly perceive that the most common and dangerous myths and lies about the most used illegal substance in the world are conceived and spread by the US government, in total disagreement with the official scientific findings…. The 1936 film Reefer Madness (worth watching) started the persecution by portraying how just one inhale of the ‘damn smoke’ can lead healthy young people to an escalation of violence and extravagance that results in death and insanity. In spite of the declaration that the facts narrated in the film do not have any relation with real persons or situations, the film is aimed to ‘inform’ the ‘unprotected’ population about the ‘new number 1 public enemy’…. The famous 1972 research from the ‘National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse’, formed by specialists and congresspeople convened by then President Nixon, suggested in its final report that “we should de-emphasize marijuana as a problem” and affirmed that “drug uses for pleasure or other non-medical reasons are not intrinsically irresponsible”. These results did not gain attention in the political agenda at the time, and were totally ignored by the government and the following period was marked by great censorship of any research with psychoactive substances.
In 1988, after 4 years of study involving hundreds of testmonies and thousands of pages of documentation, Francis Young, DEA Administrative Law Judge published a report where he suggests reclassifying the dangerousness of cannabis, declaring: “it is reasonable to conclude that there exists safe uses for marijuana under medical supervision — to affirm the contrary is a clear error of judgement”. The official research was again not considered, and aproximately 10 years later President Clinton’s drug-czar (Barry Macfrey), declared to the press that “there is no trace of scientific evidence about safety or medical beneficials of marijuana use.” …. Meanwhile, in Europe, research ordered by the British government in 1996 registered an opinion that recomended the reclassification of the substance, indicating that “the negative aspects of the use should not be exaggerated: cannabis is no poison, and does not represent a high addiction level”. And the National Institute of Health (US) has promoted a workshop about the possible medical uses of cannabis, and among the conclusions it affirms that there may be some specific cases where the use of cannabis (smoked) surpasses the results of the medicines which utilizes the active principle (thc) in capsules.
Prohibited plant, denounced persecution – Ecologia Cognitiva

…[F]ederal representative Marcelo Itagiba (PMDB-RJ), the former State Public Security Secretary who filed the suit against the demonstration — which resulted in its prohibition by the courts — declared that the march was illegal, as it promotes marijuana use: “The march was created to promote a crime, which is the consumption of drugs. I am not against freedom of expression, but this debate should not happen in a public space, but rather in the academic environment or in Congress. This is a movement of a dozen bourgeoisies who seek personal satisfaction through their own vices”. The representative Itagiba is fully right, but, poor man, he doesn’t know who he is dealing with, or he rather knows it well but dosen’t want to go deeper on the record: it is exactly amidst the academic “community”, and among the environmentalist NGOs, and in a disguised way, behind the scenes of the “progressive” — and radical — parties where the fight for drug decriminalization and further liberation is conceived. Ex-president Fernando Henrique Cardoso, the ‘vaseline’ [lubricant], and governor Sergio Cabral, a reader of “The State and the Revolution” (from Lenin), two typical byproducts of our ‘politically correct’ medium, are in favor of this move and work on its behalf whenever they find a chance. The thesis is that legalizing the production, commerce, distribution and control of the drug by the state, the violence around it would vanish in a magic touch…. The concrete fact is that in the last 50 years drugs have massively spread into an universal scale. Alongside, it has turned into one of the most lucrative businesses in the world, generating something around US$ 800 billion a year. International mobs and organized crime are behind it, but also the FARC’s guerrillas, the ideological and revolutionary interests of all kinds, not to mention the very police, the politicians and sectors of the justice system — exactly the ones who should fiercely combat the drug dealing.
A Marcha da Maconha – Blog sem Máscara

One thing is certain: this year’s edition of the Brazilian Marijuana March is to be remembered by activists from all the different positions of the spectrum. On one hand, it is the first time that the movement to legalize was spread across the country, and on the other, it is worth some reflection on what could be called a backfire in the repression strategy, as the issue earned even more visibility in the media. The two videos posted at Filipeta da Massa illustrate well the situation: the first is a brief documentary of the single legal March in Recife, Pernambuco and the other reports the negative reaction to the prohibition as shown on the main TV news program in Brazil.

Among the many different points-of-view, some people are just starting to approach the issue. For them, it seems illogical trying to understand something without having fair access to all sides of the debate. Kind of obvious, isn’t it?

About the march: I came to know about it kind of 2 or 3 weeks ago, and I must confess that I found it ridiculous. I imagined that it would be a bunch of people who do not want anything from their lives, people who think they are great because of the drug, and that they would be smoking with that superior stand like saying ‘arrest me if you can’. But when I heard that there would be no use of the drug during the march, I backed off. I did it because I had the sense that it would be a serious initiative, even though the kind of people I’ve mentioned above would be there anyway, managing to ruin the good ideals of the initiative. Deep inside I thought it would not work, ’cause marijuana is a great taboo and nobody — from the people connected to politics — wants to be the first to debate its legalization. I don’t have a formed opinion about this. I’ve read a little folder about the march and I am not convinced if this should happen or not, it has its problems, it could bring some benefits, but I really don’t know what to say about it. If we could guarantee that the legalization would decrease the drug dealing, I would go to the march in order to truly support legalization, but as it is just a deduction — though a logic one — and not a sure thing… Anyway, the prohibition was an awful authoritarian decision, and such a thing will never have my support. The worst thing in this whole story is that nobody knows how to debate and be respectful. Everyone has their own opinion on the issue, and they just want to impose it over the others, but nobody knows how to be peaceful and convincing enough for that.
The story of how I lost a teeth + The Marijuana March – Grão de Estrelas

The goal of Father Adelir Antonio de Carli was to break the 19-hour record for remaining aloft using only party balloons, in order to raise funds for the rest stop for truckers in Paranagua, Brazil’s second-largest port for agricultural products. Brazilian truckers often spend days waiting to unload in the port, especially during the busy soy export season now under way.

Planes, helicopters and boats from Brazilian rescue forces have been out along the coast of Santa Catarina state looking for the balloon-flying priest all week. Surely, a religious person gone missing during a charity stunt deserves the highest respect, but the lack of elementary safety features in Father de Carli’s plan to accomplish his endeavor has unleashed an unstoppable stream of humorous lines, although not without some guilty thoughts about them.

Would it be comic if it were not tragic? I say that it can be tragic and comic. Here we have the ‘tragi-comedies’ that won’t let me lie. Please, agree with me before I go on! — IT IS COMIC! (so here is a bold and gratuitous appeal to share the heavy weight in my consciousness for having seen so much comedy in all this).
Peter Pan Priest – Fossas do Ofício

So, the amount of jokes over this priest who decided to fly tied to balloons filled with helium is not contained in the sacred scriptures…. Moreover, the flying priest’s last feat was the topic-of-the-day in a debate I had with a friend who studies journalism and lives in Rio. The father’s imprudence, from being so bizarre, ends up as risible. How does someone wanting to fly with party balloons in completely unfavorable weather, without knowing at least how to operate a gps — really folks?
How to use a gps?Como usar um gps? – de tudo um pouco

Indeed, the last contact made by the priest through a satellite cell phone was a request for someone who could teach him how to operate the GPS he had taken with him, so that he could give his actual coordinates. Even the uber-geek folks at Gizmodo could not keep from gaily commenting the tech aspect in the case.

Sadly, nobody was able to explain to him how to do it correctly and, around 9PM—the time of his last contact—he disappeared. I see this sad event, which has ended in the tragedy of a missing person—obviously he’s a bit crazy and this is all his fault—as an example of all that is wrong with the design of machines today. Not because technology itself was the cause of him getting lost—it wasn’t. It was more bad luck and bad planning than anything else. After all, his first flight was a success without GPS, and men have been wandering through Earth without any help for thousands of years. The problem here is that I can imagine his frustration, trying to make sense of an infernal device so he could tell people his exact location, all the while knowing that he was going to get lost forever in the immensity of the sea.
Priest Takes Off Using Party Balloons, GPS to Find God (Literally) – Gizmodo

Searchers have already found many of the balloons stretched over an area 50 km away from the coast of Santa Catarina state, but no signs of the cleric, who was wearing a helmet, aluminum thermal flight suit, water-proof overalls and a parachute. Friends and relatives still believe that the priest was well prepared for unexpected events, and that there is big chance that he is still alive. Yet, other accounts tell about the priest’s daring and exhibitionist personality, that would disregard safety measures and trample upon any obstacle standing on his way to broad recognition.

Father Adelir de Carli (41) was expelled from the free flight course Vento Norte [North Wind] 3 years ago, in Curitiba [Parana State], for his exhibitionism and lack of discipline. This is what Marcio Andre Lichtnow — the instructor of the para-glider course attended by the priest — tells us… “He was undisciplined and would not attend the theory classes, which are basic for the comprehension of the meteorological issues. He was not humble at all, having an inflated view of himself, the know-it-all guy. He looked like a playboy”, says Lichtnow. The instructor says the Father attended 10 hours of practical lessons and 4 hours of theory. In order to complete the course, he would need 40 hours of practice and 30 hours of theory. Lichtnow tells also that the priest sought him to talk about his plans to fly from Paranagua. “I told him that if he flew from there, the only place he could land it would be South Africa, because there is where the winds blow to. But he said he had already figured out everything, and I thought he was joking”, he remembers. “I became much less Catholic after meeting this priest”, sums up the flight instructor, who is very clear in dissociating the priest from his flight school. “He tried to be my student, but he was not accepted”.
Another Brazilian in ‘Lost’ – Dona Didi

There is a possibility that the priest’s careless attitude for his own safety gave license to or even triggered the strong flow of comic responses seen in the Brazilian blogosphere concerning the unusual circumstances contributing to his disappearance. Last time we checked, Father Adelir had even acquired a fake blog called ‘Imaginary Diary of a Flying Priest‘, and Julio Vedovatto plays with the possible media headlines around the world reporting about the priest’s stunt:

- The New York Times: Priest goes up, the market goes down.
- O Globo: Aerial Chaos: Pilot confirms ‘near collision’ with priest.
- Bogotá Daily: Missing priest maybe a FARC prisoner now.
- Madrid Gazette: Zapatero Declares: If priest tries to enter Spain, he will be deported.
- La Paz Diary: Evo Morales talks with Priest, seeks adjustment on gas prices to refill balloons.
- Little Diary: Crazy Priest Gets away with the Balloons of Kids’ Party.
- Corrieri de la Cera: Vatican supports ballons, but keeps condemning preservatives.
- Washington Post: Hillary vs. Obama: Priest will decide the contest.
- Beijing News: Chinese government seizes images of the priest’s balloon landing in Tibet and affirms there was no violence.
- Beijing News (Extra Edition): Chinese government announces that the priest is already rehearsing for the opening of the Olympic Games.
- Israel: Hezbolah declares that the “flying priest” is a Moaomé mockery and promises new terrorist attacks.
- Correio Braziliense: Opposition talks about evidence that the balloons were bought with governement credit cards.
- Ecuador Daily: Government confirms that ballons were shot down by Colombian forces and demands explanations.

Newspapers around the world, about the balloon priest – Julio Vedovatto

In fact, the story of the Brazilian priest and his balloons has really echoed abroad, and the tragicomic results among bloggers seems to be the same. The event is already listed as a candidate for the ‘Darwin Awards‘, an initiative to ‘reward people who remove themselves from the gene pool voluntarily by accidentally killing themselves in stupid ways’, and ‘The spoof‘ has a headline that says: “Al Qaeda accepts responsibility for missing balloon priest“.

Almost a week after the disappearance the priest’s family still believes that he will be found, as the seat was lined with air-tight pockets that can be pumped up and there are several islands in the region that he could have washed up on. Indeed, one of the most circulated satires of the case toys with the fact that the priest might have landed on a very well-known island, where others are already Lost.

Another Brazilian in Lost
[Rodrigo Santoro, a Brazilian actor, joined Lost's cast during it's third season]

We hope and pray still for the success of the continuing search efforts and that we may have the opportunity to share stories about the viral media phenomenon triggered by his exploits and good laughs with the Father himself. Meanwhile, the blogosphere continues to balloon with the story.

Where is the priest?

Places the crazy balloon priest has visited

Father Adelir makes appearence on Google Maps

Petrobras officials quickly reacted saying that 3 months of further drilling would be needed before any meaningful estimate of volumes could be made. Yet, the day-after local media headlines took on the ‘announcement’ as a deliberate act to boost Brazilian markets and Petrobras’ share price, and speculated about the legal consequences the company could face for making such groundless comments. Meanwhile bloggers found a new gusher of opinions in the theme.

Haroldo Lima, director of National Petroleum Agency, has firmly denied having made any public announcement related to the Santos Basin’s find. He would have just made a comment based in articles published in a specialized American magazine. But the word of the director of a regulatory agency has weight not only over the sector regulated by it, but also over financial markets. Therefore it is not his role to make any inference. The weight of the word of an oil sector manager is much bigger than the opinion or an article of a journalist.
The weight of the word and the responsability – Leandro Vieira

The media, which in its overwhelming majority is opposed to the president Luis Inacio da Silva, the “Lula”, has tried to characterize Haroldo Lima as irresponsible, and the oppositionist CVM (Securities and Exchange Commission) says it will “investigate” him for having shared information with the public before an official announcement from Petrobras. That was an evident demonstration of spite, envy and hatred from the Brazilian right against the President Lula. That’s what we can translate from the attempt to disqualify the remarks of Haroldo Lima — a respectable public Brazilian figure. In its sordid ways, the media has tried to sensationalize the context of Lima’s comments, which were made in a closed event, as if he had made an announcement in a public plaza with a megaphone, aiming to reach the whole population. In fact, the information about the Carioca field was already known by oil specialists, and it had already been reported in the US by the “World Oil Magazine”.
Media roars against – Tribuna Petista

Lula: … tell Petrobras to make up another oil field,
so that I can get away from the latest scandals, heck!!!

The media hatred, which is infecting even members of the government, derives from the fact that Lima has revealed a big failure of the local press. Strategic information about our energy reserves, something hugely important, was circulating since February in the specialized media, and our local outlets were not aware of it. They were not reporting anything about it. What a colossal slip-up… The case of the mega-fields is emblematic. The right has become depressed about it! It has become depressed with the fact that Brazil has found oil! Now, it is depressed and revolted by the fact that ANP’s director has shared what the specialized media already knew, that there is a concrete possibility that the Sugar Loaf field contains more than 30 billion barrels and is the third biggest reserve on the planet.
In defense of Haroldo Lima: the media failed – Óleo do Diabo

It looks like the left-right bickering has once again thwarted media accuracy in reporting important issues, and the blogs are speculating about the hidden agendas in this case. Once again you will find different scripts for the same plot depending on which blog you read, but it is good to mention that the man in case, ANP’s director Haroldo Lima, is an historic leader from the left who is particularly known for his activism — he was jailed and tortured by the regime’s political police from 1976 to 1979 — through the traumatic period of armed resistance and military dictatorship in Brazil.

On April 2006, the government wasted 40 million reais to announce that Brazil had started to produce more oil than it consumes. But the bragged-about self-sufficiency has not happened until now. Petrobrás’ production has stalled, the usage has increased and the short-fall of the oil’s commercial balance has started to grow once again. The red numbers in 2008 may reach 8 billion dollars. There were fireworks also last year, to announce the discovery of the Tupi mega-field. At the time, the government declared that the Brazilian reserves, that reach today 14 billion barrels, could add up to 22 billion barrels. But it is extremely early to say if or when those reserves will be in fact explored. Last week, some data related to Petrobras was again used to feed political pyrotechnics. Haroldo Lima, National Petroleum Agency’s [ANP] general director has declared that Petrobras found a mega-field at Santos Basin.
Governo mente sobre a Petrobrás – Blog do Briguilino

It is possible that some speculators have made some money with the information that he [Haroldo Lima] has opened to the public. But these speculators would earn money one way or another. If the information turns out to be false, they will sell and win again. Haroldo Lima has no money or connections that would allow him to play at Bovespa [the Brazilian Stock Market]… Probably, almost certainly, Haroldo Lima’s goal was to denounce Petrobras’ contracts with foreign companies. This mega-field, which he called “Sugar Loaf”, it is not “ours” as it should be. Petrobras has only a 45% share along with the group of companies that will explore this field. The British BG has 30%, the Argentinian-Spanish Repsol has the remaining 25%. We should ask: why and for what Petrobras needs foreign resources for exploration and prospecting?
Helio Fernandes: Haroldo Lima, unsuspect and untouchable – à ilharga de uma geógrafa (blog incidental)

The one new element that the oil-rich dreams have brought to the Brazilian political arena is the government resolution to change its set of rules for oil exploration and production. Although assuring international partners that there will be no change to the rules of the game already under way, Mines and Energy Minister Edison Lobao said on Thursday that “the government has to have better terms in the sharing of natural resources”. Indeed, the withdraw of subsalt blocks from last year’s annual auction of oil concessions was seen as a move to keep the most potentially productive areas out of foreign hands, and a local sign of a growing global trend of a so-called resource nationalism spurred by high oil prices.

With the discovery of this subsalt layer, called Carioca or Sugar Loaf, and of the other extraordinary reserves already identified, the exploratory risk has practically ended, and as Petrobras’ president Sergio Gabrielli has remarked, it has become a prized ticket. That was the reason why the government and the company has decided, in time, to withdraw from the 9th round of concessions the subsalt layer blocks, and the plan is to change the 1997 legal framework. As expected, private businesses and the media are making their moves against this approach, but the current reality formed by high international oil prices, the energetic crisis in South America and in the world, and mainly, the recent discovery of almost risk-free giant fields with high profitability, is indeed pushing a revision of the 1997 legislation.
Article from José Dirceu – Blog de um sem-mídia

In the original article [which generated the brouhaha], the author had a special interest in finding out the reason for the change of mind of the Brazilian oil managers concerning oil concessions and partnerships with foreign companies in the exploration of national reserves.

The article details the explorations developed at the Santos Basin, their position and depth, the possible extension of the field, which blocks of exploration it comprehends, as well as the characteristics of the oil already found… The last paragraph manifests the author’s opinion, his unease with the possible withdrawal of some key blocks from ANP’s 9th round of auctions, which he considers to be, maybe, the manifestation of the kind of “nationalism that some have predicted due to the decline of world oil reserves”. But he wraps up with what he considers to be the “real message of these discoveries” — “that we must not lose sight of the as-yet unknown, but possibly great, potential of basins that are often the exclusive domain of national oil companies”.
Petróleo de Carioca: o que dizem Haroldo Lima e a World Oil – Vermelho

“God is Brazilian,” Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said in November in response to his government’s announcement that massive new oil reserves had been discovered offshore. Now, as might be expected, various interests are lining up to compete over who owns and benefits from this gift of God.

The open source movement in Brazil, with all its successes and failures, has somehow turned into a cultural trend. In this context, Microsoft’s Office suite (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, etc.) and its proprietary files’ format became the very symbol of the monopolistic obstacle against the freedom pursued by free software activists, and also the main target of government agencies’ official substitution policies. Where the Linux operating system was still not ready to reign, at least OpenOffice — with it’s ISO approved ODF file format standard — could help breaking Microsoft’s cultural hegemony. And it worked!

In fact, it seems that the strategy has worked too well. Microsoft started to see its multi-billion dollar Office business model menaced by the rising trend of governments giving preference to open standards in their decisions on software acquisition. The tactical reaction of Microsoft in defense of their monopoly position was to blitz for the sanction of their incompatible alternative format Open XML as a second ISO standard. Bloggers decried that the strategy used to carry OOXML through the ISO fast-track process has damaged the standard’s credibility and created serious consequences for the whole concept of open standards. Indeed, Microsoft tactics can bring forth an intense rage among those Brazilians who have worked so long and so hard for open standards, and it is not surprising to see MS portrayed not merely as a monopolist but as a monster.

Although having (barely) followed the procedural norms, ISO has lost (or at least damaged) its credibility by being involved in a process that was corrupted behind the scenes by a series of suspicions, irregularities, lobbies and so forth. If the approval had been reached by agreement, be it through Fast-Track or not, ISO would have maintained its credibility. But by passively conceding to Redmond’s pressure, and not checking the decision-making procedures of the various countries, ISO has damaged its credibility in a permanent way — and somehow thwarted all the other ISO standards.
OOXML = ISO 29500 – Microsoft Wins, we all lose – Linux… e mais coisas

The novel twist is this case seems to be that being open has brought a commercial advantage to open source initiatives based on the ODF standard, and Microsoft was forced to adapt to the new situation. As deep-seated rivals, Microsoft and Brazilian officials who were dedicated to open source were not entirely ready to face each other in an open exchange at first.

From the heights of its self-attributed superiority, and acting with its well known arrogance, Microsoft has come to declare, at the time of the meeting of the “Work Group 2″ — whose goal was to analyze the … comments delivered to the … [ISO standard's process] … in January — that “Brazil should not present opinions if they are not able to finish their analysis”. Well, the total number of Brazilian comments was above 2000 — is this volume not expressive enough?
Unhappily OOXML was approved by ISO – Open2Tech

It must have been the first time that so many countries have engaged in the debate over a technical standard. From the open source side, the communities are proud of their ODF/ISO-26300 standard, which aroused the giant Microsoft to wage a global war only to make their spec match ODF’s status. From the other side, huge commercial interests are at stake when Microsoft-based third-party vendors around the world are at risk of being excluded from contracts because the company has no ISO approved format. National delegations were in charge of the vote, and bloggers are decrying that ‘non-technical’ issues have influenced the decision.

When we read in blogs and in the tech media about what happened in many of these countries, where tech groups were against the approval, but the local NB [national standards body] staff opted to vote YES or absent, we must recognize and praise the excellence of what was accomplished in Brazil by ABNT [Brazilian Association of Technical Norms], showing a behavior that stands as an example to other NBs around the world!
OpenXML was approved… what now? – Free Software Movement from Paraná

There were many countries at ISO who, out of cowardice and / or incompetence, failed to vote. Among them were our neighbors Chile and Argentina, and also other ‘important’ countries such as Holland, Australia, Belgium, France, Italy, Russia, Spain, Luxemburg, Malysia, Sri Lanka, Turkey, Vietnan, Zimbabwe and Kenya. All of these were absent. Terrible!!! Now office suites software will be like cell phone chargers, bivolt (with ODF and OpenXML).
(Comment from Free Software Movement from Paraná at Open XML: Did they really win?)

Vitorio has talked about these countries, and it was really sad, but it was worse to be aware of distortions in important votes such as Norway’s, whose group has openly asked to change their vote to NO — it was like 24 voted NO, and 2 voted Yes, but Norway’s vote came out as YES… It is sad! We won’t talk about other irregularities such as in Italy, Portugal, France, Germany, Poland, Holland, Switzerland, Sweden and many others including the US. That phrase they use, “Money Talks”, is true. I can imagine how ashamed are the tech people from these countries who had distorted their votes. They study, research and find out that it does not hold as a standard. They vote against it. But still their vote comes through as ‘Yes’ or ‘Absent’.
(Comment from Movimento Software Livre Paraná at Open XML: Eles realmente ganharam?)

A prominent name of this debate is Jomar Silva, General Director of the Brazilian Chapter of the ODF Alliance and member of the Brazilian delegation, who is blogging in Portuguese and in English. His reports are providing an inside perspective on the debate.

According to Jomar, who was at ISO’s BRM [Ballot Resolution Meeting], someone came to him during a coffe break and subtlely asked him not to raise an important question in the process analyzing the OOXML request to become an ISO standard: the non-existence of a mapping from the legacy format (ex: .doc) and the new format (ex: .docx)… If this mapping is out of the OOXML specification, its main goal is invalid. The specification is invalid. The Brazilian delegation wanted to raise the issue of: where is the mapping? But here is another point. Someone asking him to not raise the issue is one thing…. What escapes me is why ISO has not allowed Brazil to present this [line of] questioning? All I know is that the blogosphere will be all around the subject in the next few days, and I will follow closely Rob Weir, Bob Sutor, Andy Updegrove, Groklaw and a bunch of reactions that Jomar’s translated post is receiving.
Wrangling at ISO – Avi Alkalay

It is worth mentioning that even Jomar Silva, a fiery ODF standard advocate, is among the commenters able to find positive perspectives brought by the whole process. Obviously, Microsoft’s retreat from proprietary file formats to open and XML-based (easier to manipulate, produce and consume) file formats is good news. And their commitment to work on translators to support ODF as native file formats in MS Office is something we would not have expected only a few years ago. In the long run, ODF supporters must be in favor of extoling its features and urging the widest use of it as possible and this would not be accomplished by maintaining a fundamentalist anti-OpenXML position in ISO.

We Brazilians, we have won [as a result of] entering such a battle and leaving it with our heads high (with no finger in the eye or low blows). We played according to the rules of the game, even though there were some interested parties that tried to present their version of the rules all the time. We’ve won also, because we left the battle strenghtened. We’ve never been so respected in the IT’s international market, and never before has a debate over open standards captured the agenda of so many people in the world. And thus, we have never before had the oportunity to speak to such a select audience. We’ve won because we gathered Greeks and Trojans in this debate and also because we’ve found out that rival companies can sit down, discuss and build together. This is for me a new paradigm, which will soon bring results to all involved.
Open XML: Did they really win? – Jomar Silva @ Void Life (Void)

All things considered, it does seem senseless to close anyone’s path to openness, and we all must be ready to adapt to new environments.

Luiz Carlos Azenha’s website says that Paulo Henrique Amorim was dismissed from IG on Tuesday, by fax. What first calls our attention is the suddenness of the portal’s decision. If it was not for Azenha, we would be accessing PHA’s site without reaching it, and not knowing why… It’s almost impossible not to speculate about possible political meddling. We wait for an explanation from IG. While waiting for it, we can speculate and worry about a media witch-hunt that may be starting, promoted by the big media companies and by the politicians who control it, the ones already known to all.
PHA’s Dismissal – Cidadania.com

It is important to mention that IG differentiates itself from the rest of the big Internet outlets by its sympathetic approach to the government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. This perspective adds intrigue to the plot, as it is not so easy to identify the forces driving behind PHA’s release.

There is NOT ONE ‘RIGHT-WING BLOG AMONG THE ONES FEATURED ON IG. I will repeat: THERE IS NONE, NO MISERABLE BLOG, NOT EVEN A MEEK ONE. But it was enough for PHA to be expelled from the portal to start this bullshit about ‘PIG’ and other clichés of ridicule adored by the partisans. If it was a political interference, it was the most idiotic move, or a play at the level of those from Kasparov. Or, maybe, SURPRISE: it was none of these, and the contract was finished because of other normal causes, indeed.
Myths about PHA’s contractual termination – Imprensa Marrom

IG has an Ombudsman, who has a blog. He’s been posting the opinions of the portal users and readers on PHA’s dismissal, mostly they are negative. He has also managed to pull out an official statement from the portal’s press office:

In a response to the reader’s request for a statement from IG on the Conversa Afiada’s case, I am publishing below the official position divulged by the portal’s press office: “The contract with the website ‘Conversa Afiada’ was unilaterally terminated on March 18th, in full respect to all contractual obligations. There will be a penalty, and the journalist is being fully compensated. The decision to terminate the contract was taken as a result of a review of the contracts of all IG’s contributors, which began some time ago. The website ‘Conversa Afiada’ was extremely disadvantageous to IG’s business model, mainly because of the low return from its ad revenue”.
IG’s explanations – Blog do Ombusdman

The late official explanation was fine, but not enough. So bloggers kept speculating.

PHA had a high salary at IG – up to many dozen thousand reais. He could be the best paid blogger in the country. But in order to imagine the motives behind his dismissal, no one should focus only on the value of his wage. There is more in it besides his well known low visitation numbers.
Paulo Henrique Amorim dismissed from iG – Pedro Doria Weblog

PHA has himself expanded the story line with new elements reported at his newly created website:

HAS CITIBANK DISMISSED ME? Rather than answering a question, Citibank chooses to halt freedom of speech. I am printing below a post published on Conversa Afiada, when I still was at IG: “BrOi”: Dantas Blackmails Citi [Citibank]. “For ‘BrOi’ [the government sponsored fusion of two big telcos] to succeed, Citi has to make an agreement with Dantas [Daniel Dantas is controller of the Opportunity Group, and Citibank's former investment manager in Brazil]. In order to force the Citi to make the deal, Dantas has filed a document — in this process where the Citi is suing him — that he obtained through illegal procedures…. Because the Citi, having sued Dantas, now cannot be accomplice to this fraud: allowing the presentation of a stolen document in a court procedure”.
Has Citibank dismissed me? – Conversa Afiada

When the news that PHA’s blog had been dropped started to spread through the blogosphere, many readers turned to other IG bloggers in order to check on what was going on. There was Mino Carta’s, a senior journalist known from his major editorial posts in national magazines, who decided to end his blog at IG because of what he felt like ‘echoes of unacceptable situations that he and PHA have known very well’. But there was also Luis Nassif, maybe the most reputable on-the-scene blogger at this time, who came to the rescue of IG’s reputation in front of the blogosphere.

1. It’s been two months now that I’ve been challenging the most truculent venture in the Brazilian media. Through all this time, I have not suffered any pressure from IG. In no moment have I suffered any kind of veto or restriction. 2. There was a unilateral termination of the contract between IG and PHA. Both parties have their reasons to complain, even though the discontinuation was conducted in a disastrous and unelegant way. 3. I wish all the success to PHA — who called this morning to thank me for the note I published about his leaving, and also for the link to the new site. From IG I also received a call, saying that there is no change in relation to the freedom my blog has always had. 4. In no way can this episode be seen as a victory of junk journalism or less space for the independent blogosphere. And PHA also is empowered by the support and solidarity he has received. 5. To the loyal readers I ask for patience, and an effort to cool down the boiling.
Back – Luis Nassif Online

A more credible version has cropped up:

What this blog has found about so far — and it’s not too much yet — is that the motivation for the contract termination was PHA’s inflexible position against the fusion of Brasil Telecom with Oi (the ‘BrOi’ he keeps ranting about). As Brasil Telecom is the controller of IG, the whole story makes sense. And if this version is true, we can understand the contract termination from IG’s point of view.
The causes of the Os motivos do rompimento – Entrelinhas

An almost obvious comment from a typical blogger comes as a good advice.

This episode, although we are not talking about a general rule without exceptions, can serve as an example and something to be evaluated in the debate about partnerships between blogs and traditional media, be it a local newspaper with little audience or a mega portal such as IG itself: personal independence, so valued by bloggers, does not always combine with business interests.
Paulo Henrique Amorim and blogs in portals – Prensa 3.0

PHA’s ousting from IG will continue to raise partisan controversy in the blogosphere, but the censorship thesis has lost ground to a collectively formed view that is able to identify such events as adjustments in the development of a new media ecology. Indeed, changes are happening everywhere, and spreading fast.

The blog world is seeing more change right now than I’ve seen in years. Mike Arrington is close to those changes, and reports on some of them (money, linking, and cliques). Mark Cuban caused a bunch of noise a few days back by writing that newspapers shouldn’t call their blogs “blogs” because it destroys their brand. Hey, I agree with that. FastCompanyLive is really my videoblog, but I don’t call it that. Cuban followed it up with another post that’s very astute. Says what matters is why you do what you do.
The changeosphere – Scobleizer

The most evident feature brought by the wave of new entrants in the sports chronicle on the web is the customized report and commentary produced by teams’ fans. Since TV transmissions of football games started in Brazil, referees are not the only ones to be sujected to biased scrutiny of the fans. The obligatory account of the games by speakers and commentators from major TV networks, regular owners of exclusive broadcasting rights, also suffer the sharp analysis — and fiery reactions — from the opinionated crowd of the many clubs’ supporters.

… fans of Palmeiras [a club from São Paulo] had enough, and there is nothing new in it. But the Internet wave has finally reached a point of breaking the big media monopoly. When it all started, around 10 years ago, HTML could only build a one way channel. Today, any dumb person can do a blog as good as this one that you are reading, and in this democratic media space there is no need to mask your true opinions. There is no need to fashion an unbiased attitude as long as there is room for everybody, and each one will find what they really want. Today, there are websites made by ‘palmeirenses’ (’Palmeiras‘ fans) to ‘palmeirenses’, full of passion and communicating through their own dialect. They are able to praise enthusiastically as only passionate fans can do, and when it comes the moment of criticism comes, it is done in a positive way, not to crush the team. This is all a team supporter, who has until now had his intelligence and desires abused, wants.
A mídia palestrina – Parmerista!

The opportunity to express the full passion for their teams in a public sphere, free from the politically correct ‘impartiality’ and ‘fairness’ of the big media narratives of the games is also a feature for the enthusiasts.

Nothing is more important than the freedom to crush a defeated rival! Nothing. Some readers will ask if it is even more important than the game itself, and I say: Yes! What is the joy of a classic duel of traditional rivals if we get stuck into details such as “the team played with two lines of four…” Football, my friends, is not just a game. I know it seems obvious written this way, but the reaction of the people to Souza’s gestures obliges me to say this. Do you want to talk just about the game, about the “lines of four” (I can’t stand this expression anymore)? So go to a blog about backgammon or chess (by the way, games that I also master…). Football is football because of a potency called ‘rivalry’. Enough of straight laced football media. Don’t let the rival-crushing die!
Não deixem o esculacho morrer! (André Rizek) – Flamengo Eternamente

Amidst the hot exchange between rivals, the ‘impartiality’ and ‘fairness’ of the mainstream media sports coverage is also a disputed issue. A recent survey has showed that the carioca club [from Rio de Janeiro] Flamengo, with 32.6 million followers, has the biggest club fan base in the world. In this context, the predictable trend of the media to please the majority of the audience has generated its proper counter reaction in the blogosphere.

[full disclosure: I am honored to be part of this intelligent and valuable crowd that follow and support the world's most cherished football club, Flamengo]

It is not news for anybody who follows ‘carioca’ football that the press has an inclination to favor Flamengo. Having the biggest fan base, and consequently the biggest consume potential, all newspapers, magazines, radio and TV networks, and Internet portals show a trend to maximize the deeds of the ‘Urubu’ [black vulture, Flamengo's totem animal] in order to satisfy the masses and keep the consumer base. If they were selling bananas, that would do no harm as it would be part of the business. But as information sellers and opinion builders, these media should be more neutral and report the truth. Unfortunately, this is not what happens. Therefore, we created this space to complete and dennounce the intentional coverage gaps of the sports media in its pursuit of ever bigger profits.
Flapress – SecaFla.com

Apart from the steamed up aficionado debate, blogs and forums are accomplishing clever hacks to customize their own media experience of the games. As illegal as it can be, the use of web video streaming services that offers video/chat interfaces to relay the [copyrighted] games’ images has been

Fans of Sport Recife are broadcasting live the games of the Lion [Sport's totem animal] to other supporters who live outside the state of Pernambuco. The viewing, which started out as webcam captures directly from the TV, are now produced through TV capture boards… “I’ve started doing this for the pleasure of helping people from outside Recife who could not watch the Sport’s games. I don’t profit from this, it is a 100% amateur activity. Everything was accomplished through the intensive exchange of information among the forum users”, declared T.A. He received instructions on the issue from a friend living Portugal, who is also passionate for the Sport Recife and much interested in the parallel transmission. Besides Portugal, the ‘audience’ is formed in its majority by fans link in the UK, Canada, and in the Brazilian states of Pará and Goiás. Some of these users agreed to collaborate with the money to buy the TV capture board.
Comentário de André Ferreira em Vote nos Brazucas – Fundamental Vídeo-Conteúdo

Although a relatively recent phenomenon, the growing intensity of the networked exchange among like-minded football club’s fan bases is bringing a new dynamic to the game. The shouted opinions that used to come from the anonymous crowds in stadiums can now reach new audiences, and start making a difference in the now enlarged sports chronicle’s market of opinions. Players must now be responsive to a much larger group of loquacious coaches.

We played badly and ugly, mainly because of the mental faints of Toró and Léo Moura [Flamengo players who were expelled with red cards from the game with Nacional of Montevideu last week, lost by 0-3]. By the way, Toró, I hope the tragedy that followed your ill temper has served as a lesson for the rest of your life. Do you know where you’ve started to fail, young Toró? It was before the ball rolled, when the indomitable supporters of Mengão [big Flamengo] were greeting you and you, contrary to what you’ve always done, dit not salute the fans… The first obligation to anyone wearing the Sacred Mantle in official games is to salute the supporters who pay homage to you with their presence and praise. Neither you, Toró, and nor Souza did that before the game started. AND THE WHOLE TEAM FORGOT TO THANK THE FANS AT THE END OF THE GAME. This is a big disrespect before those who don’t measure the efforts to support the five times national champion Mengão Fuderosão [big f...ing Flamengo]. We demand that this clowny performance is not to be repeated, ever, in any field.
Homem que é homem não chora – FlamengoNET

As already reported here at GVO, Brazilian alternative sports media is also focusing on corruption involving club and league managers, player agents, politicians and sports promotion companies, as well as the big sports media outlets. Surely a good sign of what we can expect from the nation’s blogosphere, given the fact that the 2014 World Cup is coming to Brazil.

Folha’s problems started a week ago when Elvira Lobato, a reporter who is now facing about 50 individual suits, published an article about the finances of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God – IURD, and its connections with tax havens. The piece lists the TV network (2nd national audience), 23 TV and 40 radio stations, besides the other 19 companies — 2 newspapers included — that forms the church’s ‘empire’, but the suits actually complain about IURD being portrayed as a ’sect’.

The issue has called RSF’s attention, and the ABI [Brazilian Press Association] has released a note [pt] describing IURD’s reaction as an ‘unprecedented coercive campaign in Brazilian media history’. While the suits against Folha has generated such compelling response from traditional media and its backers, a very different approach is being adopted towards the legal dispute between Veja magazine and the journalist-turned-into-blogger Luis Nassif. As expected, the blogosphere has much to say about that.

The blogosphere is sizzling about Luis Nassif’s political-idoeological(?) dispute with Veja magazine. This is the first time I see an issue generating so much debate in the blogosphere. The curious thing about it is that not only the political blogs are following the theme. Earlier this year, Nassif has started to publish a series of articles about the role of Veja magazine in political affairs of the country’s recent story, specially during FHC and Lula’s government.
Luis Nassif X Veja Magazine: the blogosphere is sizzling – GJol

I’ve already written about that here, and I’ll repeat: I see no difference between IURD and big media in terms of character. Morally speaking, they are made of the same stuff. A reader asks me if I am in favor of the series of suits that IURD followers filed against ‘Folha’. Obviously not, but they are within their rights. In a democracy disputes are resolved in courts, and not through fights as it were in the age of the caves. Veja has decided to sue Luis Nassif using the same procedure, and until now I’ve not seen any national movement led by the OAB [the Brazilian equivalent of the American Bar Association], or the ABI [Brazilian Press Association] in defense of the journalist. Hypocrisy is a tribute that virtue pays to vice [sic]. Leave me out of that.
José, the Bishop, Nassif and Hypocrisy – Blog do Ailton

In response to Nassif’s denouncements, Veja magazine has filed legal suits against the journalist. The magazine has not refuted any of Nassif’s allegations, and has been using legal technicalities in order to delay or hamper the publication of the series of articles. The magazine has the right to go to the courts to seek reparation for possible damages. BUT, everytime the press publishes empty charges and somebody seeks for reparation, he/she is promptly accused of trying to silence the press, or acting against freedom. This time, no media outlet or big newspaper has come in defense of Nassif’s journalistic freedoms. Two weights, two measures. It is always like this. The curious thing is that the big media has been silent about Nassif’s charges. It is the big case of the moment in all newsrooms, on the web pages, but not even a line about the issue can be found in any big newspaper.
The battle Nassif vs. Veja: Big media in defensive mode – Blog do Desemprego Zero

As the whole Internet already knows, Luiz Nassif is publishing a series of accusations against Veja. I don’t know what motivates him; after all, as he says about me, these ‘are complicated themes, and she does not master the field’ … He must have his reasons, imperceptible to my naivety. I disagree with his political positions in general, which is not a surprise for anybody who reads what I write, and reads what he writes, in case there is someone included in such contrasting categories. But this is secondary, as it is secondary that, personally, we have built respect and appreciation one for the other. What matters, here, is that Veja has decided to sue him. Terrible decision! The press is going through a delicate moment, with lawsuits abounding everywhere. Just to mention the latest example, here we have the IURD casting a series of lawsuits over Elvira Lobato [Folha's reporter] through its followers, with the clear intention to silence her.
Nassif vs. Veja – internETC

IURD is worried about the effects that Folha’s articles, and also the ones from the two others newspapers — one from Rio and one from Bahia — may have had in the corporate partnerships needed to guarantee the expasion of the empire founded by Bishop Macedo [IURD's religious leader]. On the other side, Folha and the other newspapers are afraid that the wave of lawsuits against the journalist Elvira Lobato, and the reporters Bruno Thys (’Extra’, from Rio de Janeiro) e Walmar Hupsel Filho (’A Tarde’, from Bahia), authors of three different reports, will end up in an expensive bill of legal costs. The strategy, from both sides, is to contend over the concept of freedom: religious freedom and press freedom. These are two heavy arguments in terms of political marketing strategy, but fragile ones in terms of content. The reports do not threaten religious freedom, maybe only Bishop Macedo’s businesses, in the same way that the lawsuits filed by IURD’s followers do not threaten freedoms related to press and information. Meanwhile, the readers (at least the ones here at the Observatory) are showing a different approach to the issue. They do not show any sympathy for the Universal Church, but they do not sympathize with the press either… [At least] a segment of the universe of Brazilian readers is starting to show signs of maturity to experiment colaborative forms of information production, which is one of the big inovations brought by the web.
Another polemic around the media – Código Aberto (Observatório da Imprensa)

This feature of collaborative production of information is one of the most interesting aspects of Nassif’s series of articles. In the lastest chapters many readers of Nassif’s blog — should we say, community of readers? — are helping in the analysis of elements, links and evidence related to the intricate collection of facts that forms the ‘Veja Case’. This novelty, along with the perception that the quest for quality of information in the blogosphere is starting to rise above the usual left / right bickering, maybe a sign of the blossoming maturity of Brazilian blogs.

I call your attention to a genuine result of networking. The piece below closes the chapter ‘Lula is my alibi’, in the Veja dossier. It was a meticulous research job made by you (click here to read the chapter). When I asked for help from you, there were some people who laughed at my request. This crowd does not know anything about networked collaborative work.
The network and the g00db0ys – Luis Nassif Online

Something very important is happening in the Brazilian blogosphere since Luis Nassif has started to publish his reports about Veja magazine: the conversation has experienced an upgrade. From the habitual altercation between blogs from the left and blogs from the right, something new has emerged in the debate: information. Nassif is using a traditional tool, the report, to present to his readers the information he has collected, I am certain, after many interviews. (It takes work to inform). But as he used a blog to publish the stuff, the blogosphere gets better. Our blogosphere has not ben committed to to inform, even less to produce information from zero. Our hope now is that, following him, without hysteria, someone will take on the activities of the Secretary of Communication of the present government — or even from the last government — and show its habits. Who is favored, what are the standards for distributing advertisement, what is the editorial line of the ones awarded, and is it always the same ones? We journalists are accustomed to demand tranparency from governments and big companies. The media — and yes, it includes the blogs — holds one of the most delicate tasks of democracy: the role to inform. It is through the media that the audience takes notice of what is going on. Without a free media it is not possible to form an opinion. The same transparency that the media demands from governments and companies should be applied to us. We will probably have fights and polemics — of the healthy kind.
Luis Nassif, Veja and the blogosphere – Pedro Dória Weblog

Thus there are signs, as the blogosphere grows in significance, that it has begun to ask for itself the deeper questions of what produces both free and good information.