A Brazilian boy's life puts 'Vacation' in proper place

Family is purest form of politics for innocent child

Split a chemical bond, and a living cell gets fuel. Separate a mother and child, and a plot gets a heartbeat. These laws of nature also can supply a narrative. In this story, as in the earlier "The Italian" and "The Butterfly," unlikely helpers enable children to reunite with their mothers.

In "The Year My Parents Went on Vacation," Brazil's candidate for this year's best foreign film Oscar, the parents of 12-year-old Mauro (Michel Joelsas) go "on vacation" (which in Brazil in 1970, the movie's setting, means "underground" or "internal exile"). In a nervous rush, his parents, who are political radicals, drop him off outside his grandfather's apartment building in Sao Paulo. They promise to be back in time for the upcoming World Cup soccer championship.

Mauro goes upstairs and waits all day by his grandfather's door, kicking his soccer ball in the hallway. But he discovers that Motel, his grandfather, died of a heart attack at his barbershop that very day. There's no way to reach the boy's parents, who are on the run from Brazil's right-wing military dictatorship.

In 1970, the film's director, Cao Hamburger, was 8 years old when his own parents "went on vacation." His father was a German Jew, and his mother was an Italian Catholic. That mix is key to the humane tone of the film, which is set in the multi-ethnic neighborhood of Bom Retiro.

Shlomo (Germano Haiut), an elderly Jewish neighbor, starts looking after the boy. Although Mauro has Jewish ancestry, he has not been brought up in that tradition. Amusing frictions ensue as this odd couple cohabit. Mauro is not used to cold showers and fish for breakfast.

But he is charmed by another neighbor, Hanna (Daniela Piepszyk), an extroverted entrepreneur who sells tickets to local boys who line up to sneak peeks into the changing rooms at her mother's dress shop.

"The Year My Parents Went on Vacation" warmly chronicles Mauro's acclimation to a new milieu. He makes eyes at waitress Irene (Liliana Castro). Hannah rolls her eyes and points out: "She's old enough to be your mother." Irene's boyfriend, who's part black, is a goalie on a local team. (That's the position young Hamburger played, too.) When Mauro sees his new hero cross himself on the field, he repeats the rite while sitting in the stands but gets smacked by Shlomo for his indiscretion.

Back at Irene's cafe, the whole neighborhood gathers to watch soccer matches on TV. An Italian comrade of Mauro's dad proclaims: "If Czechoslovakia wins, it will be a victory for socialism." Meanwhile, Shlomo secretively contacts a radical group and gets arrested himself.

The weaker scenes deal with the political backdrop. Hamburger intercuts closeups of dancing feet at a bar mitzvah with closeups of the stamping hooves of police horses in a raid elsewhere in the city. This was done far more effectively in "Some Mother's Son," when director Terry George intercut the legs of Irish dancers with the legs of IRA guerrillas.

"The Year My Parents Went on Vacation" gives us a boy's-eye view of a turbulent Brazil in 1970. Pele and soccer goals mean more than Che or slogans spray-painted on walls. For a 12-year-old, reuniting your family scores higher than overturning a repressive regime.

http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/movies/854537,MOV-News-year21.article#

BBC delves into Brazilians' roots

Neguinho da Beija-Flor's stage-name indicates his skin colour; in Portuguese, Neguinho means Little Black.

In this year's Rio Carnival competition, he sang a song celebrating Brazil's African roots in a performance that won his samba school the title.

But having learned to be proud of his African ancestry, he was shocked to find out that about 67% of his genes are European and only 31% African, according to an estimate based on an analysis of his DNA.

"People will think I'm joking if I tell them this", said the singer, who knew very little about his African ancestors but nothing at all about his European ones.

Neguinho da Beija-Flor was among nine celebrities who were tested for a project, called Afro-Brazilian Roots, by the Brazilian Service of the BBC.

Brazil has more people with black ancestry than any other nation outside Africa, and its mix of Indians, Africans and Europeans gave rise in the past to the claim that the country was a "racial democracy".

But it is also a country where black people remain socially disadvantaged.

The results of the DNA tests surprised many by showing that skin colour does not necessarily reflect the ancestry of a person's genetic make-up.

Sergio Pena, professor of biochemistry at the Federal University of Belo Horizonte, who led the genetic analysis, explained the apparent contradiction.

"Only a few genes are responsible for someone's skin colour, which is a very poor indication of ancestry. A white person could have more African genes than a black one or vice-versa, especially in a country like Brazil," he said.

Soap opera actress Ildi Silva found that matches of the Y chromosome in her family are common in northern Europe, and that 71% of her genes are European and 19% African.

"I knew I had a Dutch ancestor from my mother's side, but I didn't know there was an European link in my paternal line as well," she said.

Genealogist Carlos Barata, co-author of the Dictionary of Brazilian Families, notes that as well as the Portuguese, immigrants from many European nations - including France, Ireland, the Netherlands, England and Germany - sought a new home in Brazil.

"The surnames might have disappeared by today's generation, but genetics can bring their contribution back to light," he said.

Controversial quotas

Musician Seu Jorge found that although 85% of his genes are African, the rest are European, confirmation that he is, as he put it "also the son of the guilty ones" - a descendant of the European slave-owners who had children with their African slaves.

"You need to be black to understand what it is like to get on a bus and see people getting off, afraid of you, or calling the police," he said.

"My daughter, who has a privileged education, came home one day telling us that her colleagues at a ballet class didn't want to hold hands with her. She will have to grow with this pain."

The BBC Brasil series has had an impact in Brazil, where the issue of racial quotas is highly controversial.

About 40 universities in the country have set aside places for black students.

Manolo Florentino, head of the Social History Department at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, said the results "show race is a failed concept in Brazil".

Referring to the university quotas, he added: "Policies that 'racialise' this country, following the example of the US, create hate and tension and will make the situation worse."

But for organisations that defend the quota system, genetics should not be used to attack anti-discrimination policies.

They argue that genetics might prove that all Brazilians are very mixed in terms of their racial ancestry, but it is naive to believe that society will consider all equal.

"I've never seen a policeman asking for a genetic ID before stopping someone. In Brazil, discrimination is based on appearance, not on genes," said David dos Santos, a priest who co-ordinates a scheme to prepare underprivileged Afro-Brazilians to go to university, and who was himself tested for the series.

'Face of the future'

Musician Sandra de Sa said that despite its racial tensions, Brazil could teach the world how different races can integrate.

She was happy though to find out she was about 93% African.

"I can't believe I'm almost 100% African. I usually jokingly say that I can still feel the chains around my ankles," said the singer.

The ancestry of the nine celebrities revealed other surprises.

Obina, a football player in Flamengo, the biggest team in Brazil, had 25% indigenous genes, the highest percentage in the tests.

His Y chromosome was traced back to the Middle East, possibly an indication of a Jewish ancestor among the many escaping persecution in Portugal and Spain some 500 years ago.

"No-one is pure in Brazil. That's why the country has the face of the future," said Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr, co-ordinator of a similar project in the US.

The mixing of races so evident in Brazil will become more prevalent around the world, Professor Gates believes, with people originating from a sole geographical area becoming increasingly rare.

Two readers of bbcbrasil.com chosen from among more than 2,000 who applied to have their DNA tested will have their results published this month.

Their story will focus on how genetics is revealing black ancestors long excluded from family history because of racism.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6284806.stm

Do you know Rio de Janeiro?

Rio de Janeiro, was discovered on January (Janeiro) 1, 1502 by Portuguese navigators who mistook the entrance of Guanabara Bay for the mouth of a river (Rio).

Sixty years later because French traders in search of pau-brasil (Brazilwood) were routinely "visiting" the area the Portuguese crown established the city of Sao Sebastiao do Rio de Janeiro.

After 2 years of bloody conflict the French were expelled and settlers began to cultivate the surrounding fertile lands. In the beginning of the 18th century the city's importance and population increased immensely as it became the main shipping port for gold and diamonds that came from Minas Gerais.

In 1763 the colonial capital of Brazil was transfered from Salvador, Bahia to Rio. In 1808, as Napoleon's armies began the invasion of Portugal, the decision was made to transfer the monarch and his court to Rio de Janeiro, where he would remain until 1821.

During this time Brasil was elevated in status from a colony to United Kingdom with Portugal. With the advent of Independence Rio became the capital of the new empire.

The city prospered economically, and by 1891 it had a population of over 500,000 inhabitants ranking it one of the largest cities in the world. As the city grew in prominence mountains were removed, bay water reclaimed, and skyscrapers constructed.

With the inauguration of Brasilia in 1960, Rio de Janeiro ceased to be Brazil's capital. Even today discussion is rife concerning whether Rio was improved or hurt by the transfer of the government.

In any event, this second largest city in Brazil is still a major cultural capital and, to some extent, its "emotional" capital as well. Rio de Janeiro has a majestic beauty, with built-up areas nestled between a magnificent bay and dazzling beaches on one side and an abruptly rising mountain range, covered by a luxuriant tropical forest, on the other.

This unique landscape makes Rio one of the most beautiful cities in the world, justifying its title of "Marvelous City" (Cidade Maravilhosa).

Rio's cultural life is intense and varied. Perhaps at no time is the city's festive reputation better displayed than during the annual carnaval which enlivens the city for 3 solid days with music, singing, parties, balls, and desfiles (street parades of brilliantly-costumed dancers performing the samba.)

Economically it is a service industry center, a key financial center, and the producer of foodstuffs, building materials, electrical equipment, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, beverages, and textiles.

But it is in the pursuit of leisure that Rio is outstanding. With its world famous beaches free to all (such as Copacabana and Ipanema), its splendid bay, one of the loveliest in the world, and its wonderful climate, a blend of summer and springtime, Rio de Janeiro is a city that lives in and for the sun.

Its population numbers around 5,750,000 inhabitants.

http://www.excitingbrazil.com/riodejaneiro.html

Party in Rio

Rio de Janeiro is the place to party after the two most popular teams in the city won their games in the Copa Libertadores.

Fluminese striker Washington scored the two goals that saw his side past Libertad 2-1 and to thte top of Group Eight on seven points.

The Paraguayans had led through Juan Samudio but a double by Washington turned the game on its head.

On the other side of the city, Flamengo avenged their defeat to Nacional Montevideo with a 2-0 triumph.

The Maracana saw Marcinho do the damage in the 25th and 65th minutes and put the Brazilians on top of Group Four with seven points.

The other Brazilian side in action, Santos, could not take advantage of an early goal against Bolivians San Jose. Kleber Pereira headed home a Pintos pass on seven minutes but Daniel Cerutti and Gerson Garcia handed the points to the home side.

Cucuta from Colombia remain top of Group Six on five points ahead of Santos and San Jose on four and Chivas with three.

On Thursday, Colo Colo clash with Boca Juniors as the headline game with Cuenca v Lanus and Sportivo Luqueno v Sao Paulo the other matches.

http://www.setantasports.com/en/Blogs/A-to-Z-of-Bloggers/Andres-Garavaglia/08/28/Party-in-Rio/?facets/football/blog-space/

Rio 2016: Brazilian Olympic Committee assumes management of new Rio de Janeiro Aquatic Center

Aquatic Center is the first equipment for the Olympic Training Center

The Rio de Janeiro bid to host the 2016 Olympic Games received an important boost this Monday, March 17. In a ceremony carried out in Palácio da Cidade, the Rio de Janeiro City Government transferred to the Brazilian Olympic Committee (BOC) the management of the Maria Lenk Aquatic Center, which was built for the swimming, synchronized swimming and diving competitions of the Pan American Games Rio 2007. The Aquatic Park will be managed by BOC for 20 years and BOC invited Ricardo Prado, Olympic medalist and former 400m medley world record holder to manage it. The Maria Lenk Aquatic Center is part of the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Park, major competition center, in accordance with the Rio 2016 bid project.

Likewise, BOC and the City Government are negotiating the transfer of the Rio Velodrome, also built for Rio 2007, within the Olympic Park. Both facilities will be part of the Olympic Training Center to be built whether or not the Rio 2016 bid wins. "This is a live legacy from the Pan American Games and it is extremely important for the Rio 2016 bid. The Aquatic Center is included in the questionnaire delivered to IOC and, by taking on its management, the Brazilian Olympic Committee demonstrates the Rio 2016 bid commitment to the Olympic Movement. For the Brazilian sports, Rio 2016 is already a reality," stated Carlos Arthur Nuzman, BOC and Rio 2016 Bid Committee president. Nuzman explained that all the sports (swimming, synchronized swimming, water polo and diving) will be coordinated by former athletes.

The first event to be carried out under BOC management will be the Maria Lenk Trophy (Brazilian Swimming Olympic Trials), between May 06 and 10, last opportunity for the Brazilian swimmers to achieve Olympic qualification standards and a vacancy for Beijing 2008. In addition, BOC has a list of activities that will be developed in the Maria Lenk Aquatic Center: courses, seminars, congresses and workshops in the sports area; training activities for athletes, coaches, referees and other people involved in the preparation and development of athletes, sports competitions and Olympic sports; swimming, water polo, diving and synchronized swimming school for children, teens, adults and seniors; local, regional, national and international competitions, fitness center; social activities linked to sports; sports and non-sports events.

http://www.sportsfeatures.com/index.php?section=pp&action=show&id=45956

Rio will hold "off-season" carnival in July

Rio de Janeiro's state legislative assembly approved a bill to create an "off-season" carnival in the city every July, the local press reported yesterday.

The bill was favored by 48 of the deputies who attended the voting.

Dionisio Lins, of the Progressive Party (PP), who proposed the bill, said the "off-season" carnival will be an opportunity to boost tourism during mid-year holidays as Rio's carnival is the most famous in the world.

The "off-season" party will last three days in July, including a weekend, but the specific date will be chosen by the state government.

The state secretariats of culture and of tourism, sports and leisure will partner with private companies to sponsor the event.

According to Lins, the samba schools will prepare shorter parades for the festival than the official ones held in February or March.

http://english.eastday.com/eastday/englishedition/features/u1a3466976.html

Moderna Museet in Stockholm Presents Time & Place: Rio de Janeiro 1956-1964

STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN.-Moderna Museet presents Time & Place: Rio de Janeiro 1956-1964, on view through April 6, 2008. Moderna Museet was created, and forged an identity, with one foot in New York and the other in Paris. And for many years, it seemed as though art from around 1960 appeared to be entirely shaped by those two cities. In hindsight, however, it is obvious that other “creative pockets” arose in entirely different places, with just as radical artistic projects. In connection with Moderna Museet’s 50th Anniversary in 2008, three exhibitions will focus on three such places around the world: Rio de Janeiro, Milan/Turin and Los Angeles. The idea is to explore the period when Moderna Museet was created from an international perspective, by featuring a representative selection of works of art, architecture, design, literature, film and music never before shown together in Sweden.

Three separate catalogues will be produced for the Time & Place exhibitions by Steidl publishers.

The exhibition on Rio de Janeiro presents art that thrived in the creative cultural atmosphere permeating the city in the 1950s and early 60s. In this new, innovative society, artists, architects, musicians, film-makers and writers worked together. Rio de Janeiro expanded into a metropolis with some 2.5 million inhabitants. Life was adapted to more economically, culturally and socially modern conditions. Copacabana became the symbol of a new lifestyle, which was open, spontaneous and dominated by the young generation.

Brazil wanted to build a new society for a new kind of people; open and imaginative, friendly without being sentimental, rational without being mechanical – a citizen liberated from the partriarchal past. The keyword was New, as in Neo-concretism, Bossa Nova (new wave) in music, and Cinema Novo in film. A unique Brazilian design idiom developed, with terse shapes and an emphasis on construction.

Neo-concretism was Brazil’s reinterpretation of constructivism and became the nation’s first modern contribution to a universal visual idiom. The pioneers of the style focused on issues of space and spatiality and on the process of creating the work, which they saw as integrated with the space itself.

The exhibition will include works by Lygia Clark, Milton Dacosta, Amilcar de Castro, Hélio Oiticica, Franz Weissmann and others.

Curator: Paolo Venancio Filho, critic and associate professor at Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro. Project manager: Annika Gunnarsson, curator Moderna Museet. Time & Place: Rio de Janeiro, 1956-1964 is sponsored by Scania.

http://www.artdaily.com/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=23478

Vigilantes take over Rio shanty towns

The sprawling favelas of Rio de Janeiro are home to more than a million of Brazil's poorest citizens.

Many of these shanty towns are controlled by drug gangs, and there are regular and violent confrontations with the police.

But a growing number of these neighbourhoods are being taken over by what are known here as militias, complicating an already difficult security situation.

These are vigilante-style operations run by off-duty or former police officers and firemen, who throw out the drug gangs and claim to offer protection to the community, but at a price.

"The payments we have discovered they get are very attractive," Rio police investigator Claudio Ferraz told the BBC News website.

"Because literally they occupy an area and charge a fee or a payment, almost like a tax inside that community, like a lord of the manor. They have complete power over some areas."

Militias have been around for some time, but analysts believe the number has been growing in recent years, while the authorities insist they are trying to deal with the threat.

However while there has been some police action against suspected militia groups, questions have also been raised about whether the police in Rio can deal effectively with corruption among their colleagues.

In the favelas, few want to talk openly about militias - and one representative from a local community group would only speak without being identified.

"They control everything, they make demands, they kill. If you don't follow their way and do what they say, you go straight to the grave," the woman said.

'Safest area in Rio'

Critics say it is the failure of the state to establish itself in Rio's poorest communities which has allowed the drug gangs and militias to move in and take over.

The favela of Tavares Bastos seems to show that things can be different.

With a spectacular view of Rio de Janeiro this is one of the few shanty towns in Rio de Janeiro not controlled by drug gangs or militias.

The reasons for this are obvious - just a short distance up the hill is the headquarters of Bope, the heavily-armed elite squad of Rio's police.

Not everyone in Rio admires the city's elite police unit, which has been accused of many human rights violations. But in the community of Tavares Bastos people say the proximity of this specialist force has brought a unique quality of life to their favela.

"This community has become, with Bope here, the safest area in Rio de Janeiro," says one man. "We don't have any more drug traffickers or thieves, and our children can live peacefully, without fear."

A woman added: "We don't have traffickers here any more, we don't have robbers. Now, it's very quiet."

But in other parts of Rio the picture is more sinister, and as many as 100 of the more than 700 favelas in Rio may now be controlled by militias, although the authorities say it is difficult to be exact.

And while the state government in Rio says it wants to eliminate these self-appointed vigilantes, at least one politician puts forward a controversial argument for a different approach.

"They offer security and in this way they can maintain order and discipline in their communities - what they call militias," says Jair Bolsonaro, a deputy in the Brazilian congress.

"The government should support them, as they don't have the ability to combat the drug traffickers - and perhaps in the future they should legalise them."

'Kind of dictatorship'

It seems in some communities there is a level of acceptance, even support for militias, as a preferred alternative to drug gangs, and this can also reflect a lack of trust in the police.

But the authorities and other observers say militias control communities using fear and violence, demanding payments for services such as gas and cable TV, even at times controlling access to the internet.

"I think militias are much worse than drug traffickers," said Gilberto Ribeiro, Rio's police chief.

"They fight the traffickers because they want to take over the area and afterwards they start to subjugate the people and create illegal benefits for their own good."

"It's really frightening to realise that these people in these poor communities are living under a different kind of dictatorship," says Julita Lemgruber, director of the centre of studies of security and citizenship at the University of Candido Mendes in Rio.

"These are groups that are illegally armed and illegally controlling a territory."

For one experienced former police officer the reasons all this has happened is obvious.

"There aren't enough police to occupy 700 favelas," former police captain Rodrigo Pimentel told Brazil's TV Globo network in a special report on militias. "This is a fact.

"The militias place protection shifts with 15, 20 or 40 men in the communities. The average is around 15 to 20. They implement their protection shifts which have a price. So it is not easy.

"The state cannot do it - to occupy 700 communities - and the militia can."

For the often beleaguered communities of Rio's favelas, the militias say they offer security the state has failed to provide.

In reality, it seems they are just another indication of the violence and lack of proper government which continues to blight the lives of those who live here.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/7283640.stm

Lula attends commitments in Rio de Janeiro today

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva attends commitments in Rio de Janeiro today.

This morning and afternoon he kicks off federal government Growth Acceleration Program (PAC) urbanization projects in the low-income communities of Complexo do Alemão, Manguinhos, and Rocinha.

This evening the President visits an exposition at the National Historic Museum along with Portuguese President Aníbal Antônio Cavaco Silva entitled “A New World, A New Empire – The Portuguese Court In Brazil.”

Afterward Lula hosts a dinner in honor of the visiting president at the Laranjeiras Palace.

http://www.emtemporeal.com.br/index.asp?area=2&dia=07&mes=03&ano=2008&idnoticia=47563

Brazilian president launches development projects in Rio's favelas

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva inaugurated on Friday projects of the Program for the Acceleration of Growth (PAC) in favelas in Rio.

Visiting the Complexo do Alemao, a region comprising of several favelas in northern Rio, Lula said that he wishes to "contribute to change the image of Rio de Janeiro," so that it recovers its status of "Wonderful City," as it is nicknamed.

"I am fed up with seeing Rio on newspapers as if it symbolized violence," the president said, adding that, if the previous city mayors had done "their part" over the past decades, he would not need to be announcing the projects, most of them aimed at improving its social and housing conditions.

He also said police have a responsibility to improve life in Rio's 600 slums. Slum residents have always complained of uninformed police raids to curb drug gangs, when innocent people were often injured or even killed by stray bullets.

"The police before coming here have to know that men, women andchildren also live here," he said.

The Brazilian federal government decided to extend the focus of its social policy to poor areas in city centers and metropolitan regions, the so-called "favelas", after it implemented social development programs in the country's impoverished rural areas.

During his visit to the favelas on Friday, Lula also suggested that the inhabitants form a committee oversee the implementation of the projects.

The president's Chief of Staff Dilma Roussef also participated in the visit. Lula referred to her as "the mother of PAC," and said she was a "strong name" for the next presidential elections in 2010.

The PAC projects in Rio's favelas will actually start to be carried out on Monday, and will cost a total of 1.14 billion reais(678.5 million U.S. dollars), of which the federal government will cover 838 million reais (499 million U.S. dollars).

The program includes construction of 4,822 new households, six schools and three medical care centers.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-03/08/content_7744035.htm

An Ode to Brazil

This South American country doesn't have anything Latin about it. It is one of the few countries in South America that speaks a different language (Portuguese) which surprisingly is not the same Portuguese as the one spoken in Portugal. Even though they are descendants, their words are quite different. My friend Vinicius, from Brazil was explaining to me that he can hardly understand what people in Portugal say. Luckily for me, I understand Brazilian Portuguese if it is spoken slowly, as it's very similar to Spanish.

Brazil is the largest country in South America, occupying 47 percent of the area in Latin America and ranking at No. 5 among the world's most populated countries, according to the Brazilian Government Web site. This is because in 1494, the kings of Spain and Portugal decided to divide the new conquered land. The pope, who at the time was Spanish, made several vertical lines in the map, giving Portugal the smallest part, not knowing that later on Brazil was going to win much of its land in wars. Even though Brazil has so many large cities, like Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Mato Grosso, Bahia, Pará and well-known Amazonas, there are still remote areas that few people have explored.

Brazil is a large country with many attractions. The most popular is the Amazon rain forest, which is the largest remaining tropical rain forest in the world, possessing 20 percent of the entire world's biodiversity. Brazil also has a 130 foot statue of Christ at the top of the mountain Corcovado in Rio de Janeiro. This statue weighs 700 tons and in 2007 it was named one of the New Seven Wonders of the World.

Among the people's many talents, dancing to the sound of Samba is one of them. Imagine a naturally tanned man, with a nice figure or muscular build and Portuguese accent asking you to dance, would you turn him down? Samba is Brazil's well-known musical style that started in Rio de Janeiro.

This kind of dance is very sensual. Want to try? First of all you need to find a partner you are comfortable having very close to you. This dance is very fast, and needs lots of coordination as it has many twirls and hip movements. These movements go with the beat of the song, either slow or so fast you feel you stomach burning. Did I get you interested? Well, remember the movie "Dirty Dancing?"

Brazilians have this song called "Lambada," which came from the song called "Llorando se Fue," from the Kjarkas, a Bolivian folklore band. The song was slow and Kaoma, a Brazilian band, took the lyrics and spiced it up so much it became "the forbidden dance." Feel free to YouTube "Lambada" and watch the first link. You will understand why it was so controversial when it was released in 1989. You might pick up some good steps as well!

Soccer is what Brazil breathes for. Having won five World Cup titles, Brazil is known for its great players. Edison Arantes do Nascimento, a.k.a. Pele, is considered to be the world's best soccer player and was awarded Athlete of the Century in 1999 by the world's national Olympic Commitee. Other well known players are Ronaldinho and Ronaldo. Soccer is a big part of this country, and T-shirt-less boys are a plus you don't want to miss.

Brazilians love to eat, in fact its main dish, called Feijoada is served daily in every restaurant. This dish, cooked with black beans, smoked ham hocks and sausage is served with slices of sweet oranges and Farofa cassava flour. Cassava is like an albino sweet potato, which is also known as Yuca or Manioc.

In the four days before lent, Brazil celebrates Carnival, which is a combination of a religious holiday and African-style celebrations. From the moment the celebration ends, people start preparing for the next year. There are Samba competitions, enormous colorful floats and elaborate, beautiful costumes covering strategic body parts. This celebration is held in a dome only used for this occasion, where people can enjoy live music and dances.

Brazil is a lively country 24/7 and no matter when you come to this beautiful tropical country, you are going to be received with a great hug and a kiss, on the cheek.

http://media.www.spectatornews.com/media/storage/paper218/news/2008/03/03/Showcase/An.Ode.To.Brazil-3246488.shtml

Brazil celebrates 50-year love affair with bossa nova

Rio de Janeiro celebrated Saturday the 50th anniversary of bossa nova, the unique Brazilian cocktail of jazz and samba that inspired generations of musicians with hits such as "Girl from Ipanema."

The picturesque city organized a free concert on its iconic Ipanema beach with bossa nova pioneers and musicians influenced by the genre, which was born out the melodies strummed by legendary guitarist Joao Gilberto in 1958.

His revolutionary sound reached a worldwide audience in 1963 with the release of "Girl from Ipanema," which was written by Tom Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes and performed by Joao and Astrud Gilberto along with American saxophone player Stan Getz.

Despite rain, organizers said Saturday's show would go on with performers including veterans Roberto Menescal, Carlos Lyra and Oscar Castro Neves as well as modernists such as the group Bossacucanova, which mixes bossa nova with electronica.

"Bossa has its eternal audience and there is also a new one," said show organizer Solange Kafuri.

But the event was marked by some controversy as members of bossa nova's old guard who were left out, such as Pery Ribeiro, demanded the inclusion of younger faces from other genres, including rock band Pato Fu.

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jerwjdaReCsSeSVQKPtDoU8FDggg