The Biggest Floating Christmas Tree in the World,
is Inaugurated in Rio De Janeiro
Event brought together thousands of people at the Rodrigo de Freitas Lagoon TO
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil, Nov 29, 2008 The inaugural event of the 13th consecutive edition of the Christmas Tree of Bradesco Seguros e Previdencia, the biggest floating Christmas tree in the world according to the Guinness Book of Records, brought together thousands of people this Saturday (November 29, 2008). Considered the third greatest event in the city of Rio de Janeiro, after Carnaval and New Year's Eve, the Tree brings something new for 2008 in the form of "A melody of peace for the Brazilian family." The spectacle of lights and colors has taken on a musical touch. An electronic carillon, imported from Italy and similar to the one used in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, has been installed within its structure to reproduce Christmas carols with bells played manually by professional bell-ringers. There are also fireworks scheduled for every Saturday.
The programming of the inaugural event, with a live television broadcast in real time by the Tree's hot site included a concert given by popular Brazilian artists such as singers Elba Ramalho, Joao Bosco, Roberta Sa and guitarist Turibio Santos, as well as the Choir of the Bradesco Foundation, made up of 112 young students. The American soprano Carol McDavit, who has been settled in Brazil for the past 20 years, also made an appearance.
The project has become the largest event sponsored by a single private company in Brazil. This is the 13th edition of the Christmas Tree of Bradesco Seguros e Previdencia, which for the first time will have thirteen flashing sequences of different images to dazzle the public. At the top of the 85- meter Tree, the star is now accompanied by two angels representing peace. The 52 kilometers of lighted strands are to evoke the Christmas theme, and 1,600 flashing lights are to evoke twinkling stars.
Certification in the Guinness Book
The second certification in the Guinness Book of Records, as the "largest floating Christmas tree in the world," was obtained because of the height of 85 meters in 2007 and recorded in the recently published 2009 edition. With its launching in 1996, the Tree was 48 meters high and up until the 2006 edition, 82 meters. The first certification in the Guinness book was awarded in 1999, when this symbol of Christmas measured 76 meters.
Technology and the Environment
For the past three years, the Christmas Tree of Bradesco Seguros e Previdencia has had generators fueled by biodiesel to reduce carbon emissions into the atmosphere. For the third year, to ensure rationality in the consumption of fuel, the generators will be controlled by a computerized system.
Neutralization of Carbon
Emissions of carbon gas into the atmosphere produced by the assembly, display and dismantling of the Tree will be neutralized by the planting of trees in regions of the Mata Atlantica rainforest.
WWW.ARVORENATALBRADESCOSEGUROS.COM.BR/FOTOS
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Friday, November 28, 2008
Super-rich buck global trend and spend, spend, spend
The security barrier swung slowly skywards, clearing the way for another glistening four-wheel drive to glide past, its occupants obscured by black-tinted, bulletproof windows.
Nearby, under the shade of a towering jackfruit tree, a cluster of dusty construction workers took a break from their morning's work - erecting yet another luxury, palm-flanked fortress in Jardim Pernambuco, a cocoon of 140 millionaires' mansions nestled on a hillside above southern Rio de Janeiro, the heartland of Brazilian high society.
While the credit crunch wreaks havoc elsewhere, Brazil's super-rich have so far emerged relatively unscathed. Glossy lifestyle magazines are filled with full-page adverts for spa resorts, designer handbags and diamond bracelets that cost more than many Brazilians earn in a lifetime. High-end estate agents say they are as busy as ever, while a new wave of so-called "extra-class" hotels are packed to the rafters each weekend.
A recent study conducted by MFC Consultoria e Conhecimento, a Brazilian research group specialising in luxury goods, claimed that Brazil's luxury sector, known by some here as the Mercardo AAA - Triple-A Market - grew by 17% last year with a similar rise expected for 2008.
Brazil is a world leader when it comes to growth in numbers of high net-worth individuals. In the last two years its number of millionaires jumped from 130,000 to 220,000 and for now at least, the economic slump has not stopped them shopping. "The main players [in Brazil] are Louis Vuitton, Dior, Versace, Armani, Valentino, Gucci and Prada," said Carlos Ferreirinha, director of MFC.
From the Amazon city of Manaus to the southern metropolises of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, a growing number of luxury shopping centres and condominiums are opening their security gates, pools and tennis courts to the country's wealthy.
Brazil's president, Luiz Inácio "Lula" da Silva came to power in 2003 promising to haul millions of his compatriots out of poverty. But his time in power has also coincided with an unprecedented boom for the rich. Lula currently enjoys an historic approval rating of 57% among Brazil's wealthiest citizens.
"From an economic point of view Lula is not a leftist, he is not a revolutionary. He is a conservative," said Lucia Hippolito, a well-known political commentator. "He feels very at home around businessmen."
However, there are increasing signs that the financial crisis is starting to rear its head in Brazil. Falling commodity prices have eaten away at the advance of Brazil's currency, the real, and a series of major infrastructure projects are expected to suffer delays as a result. The middle and lower classes are also starting to feel the pinch as credit dries up. Ferreirinha believes Brazil's luxury boom will start to slow in 2009.
For now, however, the crisis seems a distant prospect in places like Jardim Pernambuco, where the afternoon silence is broken only by the chirping of birds and the thwack of tennis balls.
"The bankers are happier here than ever before," said Hippolito. "In Brazil we joke that Lula is the father of the poor and the mother of the rich."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/nov/29/brazil-credit-crunch
Nearby, under the shade of a towering jackfruit tree, a cluster of dusty construction workers took a break from their morning's work - erecting yet another luxury, palm-flanked fortress in Jardim Pernambuco, a cocoon of 140 millionaires' mansions nestled on a hillside above southern Rio de Janeiro, the heartland of Brazilian high society.
While the credit crunch wreaks havoc elsewhere, Brazil's super-rich have so far emerged relatively unscathed. Glossy lifestyle magazines are filled with full-page adverts for spa resorts, designer handbags and diamond bracelets that cost more than many Brazilians earn in a lifetime. High-end estate agents say they are as busy as ever, while a new wave of so-called "extra-class" hotels are packed to the rafters each weekend.
A recent study conducted by MFC Consultoria e Conhecimento, a Brazilian research group specialising in luxury goods, claimed that Brazil's luxury sector, known by some here as the Mercardo AAA - Triple-A Market - grew by 17% last year with a similar rise expected for 2008.
Brazil is a world leader when it comes to growth in numbers of high net-worth individuals. In the last two years its number of millionaires jumped from 130,000 to 220,000 and for now at least, the economic slump has not stopped them shopping. "The main players [in Brazil] are Louis Vuitton, Dior, Versace, Armani, Valentino, Gucci and Prada," said Carlos Ferreirinha, director of MFC.
From the Amazon city of Manaus to the southern metropolises of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, a growing number of luxury shopping centres and condominiums are opening their security gates, pools and tennis courts to the country's wealthy.
Brazil's president, Luiz Inácio "Lula" da Silva came to power in 2003 promising to haul millions of his compatriots out of poverty. But his time in power has also coincided with an unprecedented boom for the rich. Lula currently enjoys an historic approval rating of 57% among Brazil's wealthiest citizens.
"From an economic point of view Lula is not a leftist, he is not a revolutionary. He is a conservative," said Lucia Hippolito, a well-known political commentator. "He feels very at home around businessmen."
However, there are increasing signs that the financial crisis is starting to rear its head in Brazil. Falling commodity prices have eaten away at the advance of Brazil's currency, the real, and a series of major infrastructure projects are expected to suffer delays as a result. The middle and lower classes are also starting to feel the pinch as credit dries up. Ferreirinha believes Brazil's luxury boom will start to slow in 2009.
For now, however, the crisis seems a distant prospect in places like Jardim Pernambuco, where the afternoon silence is broken only by the chirping of birds and the thwack of tennis balls.
"The bankers are happier here than ever before," said Hippolito. "In Brazil we joke that Lula is the father of the poor and the mother of the rich."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/nov/29/brazil-credit-crunch
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Petrobras’ Future Could Be Bright
Petroleo Brasileiro SA (NYSE: PBR) has uncovered what has been called one of the biggest oil fields in the world, but the retreat in oil prices has led to a sharp drop in the firm’s market valuation. The drop can be attributed to the fact that the majority of this oil is very expensive to get out of the ground and the company’s project assumptions of $40 a barrel oil is at risk of breaking. The big question is: How far will oil drop and will it stay low?
Oil prices hitting $147 were a clear sign of a bubble, but many are saying that $40 a barrel may be too low. So, where is the actual market equilibrium for crude oil prices? The question is difficult to answer due to the nature of the oil market - the supply side is tightly controlled and the demand side is difficult to predict. However, we know that an improvement in the economies of the world would increase the appetite for oil once more and spur prices higher.
So, assuming the current economic crisis doesn’t last forever, oil prices should eventually move higher. The big question is when this will happen. The United States is the largest consumer of oil and the current recession is expected to last for awhile. However, a rebound in oil prices only relies on an increase in spending, which some economists are expecting to see as early as the second half of 2009. So, if oil begins to turn around companies like Petrobras could prove to be quite the bargain.
Petrobras currently trades at just over 4x earnings despite holding rights to one of the largest oil reserves in the world. Its recent discoveries off the coast of Rio de Janeiro have been estimated to contain billions of barrels of high quality light crude oil. The company just recently began commercial production of Brazil’s first subsalt oil a few months ago by linking a subsalt well to an existing production platform that was lifting heavy oil from shallower depths.
Investors confident in oil’s eventual recovery and Petrobras’ impressive line-up of projects over the long-term should consider investing in long-term or LEAPS options. These let investors place bets without committing as much capital up-front, which helps multiply gains when a recovery takes place. Currently, the January 2011 $25 LEAPS are trading at just $5.00 a piece. This means that investors can obtain the rights to 100 shares of Petrobras at $25 per share anytime during the next 791 days for just $500 down!
Telenovelas lose their sizzle in Brazil
Genre grappling with weak ratings
RIO DE JANEIRO -- Is the gloss coming off telenovelas, the perennial primetime favorites that could be relied upon to pump Brazil's free-to-air webs?Recent viewing data shows that audiences are falling, leading some analysts and industry execs to prophesize the end of the genre's dominance as competition from the Internet and pay TV lures viewers away. Others blame saturation of the format.
Studies from local research firm Ibope show a decrease in eyeballs for TV Globo's telenovelas. The net is a distant audience leader here and produces and airs four in primetime Monday through Saturday.
The most dramatic fall is in TV Globo's 6 p.m. slot, currently occupied by "Negocio da China," which has declined to 40% this year from a 56% average in 2006 when ??? was on air.
Even TV Globo's 10 p.m. slot, now featuring "A Favorita," the country's most-watched TV program with an aud share of 60%, is down from the 69% notched up in 2006.
The situation has become so dire that No. 4 net TV Bandeirantes recently shut down its telenovela production division and did not renew the temporary work contract of some 200 employees. Net has vowed to resume production next year.
The rapid expansion of competing media is probably the main culprit in telenovelas' rating decline. With incomes rising, many Brazilians can finally afford pay TV -- some 5.4 million homes had subscriptions in July, up 13% from March 2007, according to sector association ABTA. And the number of Internet users has soared to 23.7 million in July from 11.6 million in July 2004, according to Ibope/NetRatings.
However, webheads believe it's a cyclical decrease."This year's telenovela audience should not be compared with the audiences in 2006 or 2004 that were exceptional years," TV Globo's spokeswoman told Variety. "Audiences sharply fluctuate year by year."
She pointed out that "A Favorita's" 60% share compared well with the 41% share the 10 p.m. telenovela slot had in 1999.
No. 2 net TV Record is also bullish on telenovelas, says communications manager Ricardo Frota.
The net is investing 200 million reals ($100 million) to expand its production center Recnov in Rio. This will allow TV Record, which already makes and airs two telenovelas, to open a third telenovela slot.
But it's going to fill the slot with a tried-and trusted format -- a remake of Colombia's worldwide phenom "Betty la fea," due to air in mid 2009. It will be co-produced in Rio with Mexican giant Televisa, as part of a recently inked five-year deal.
Miriam Shirley, media director of the Rio division of pub agency Ogilvy & Mather, believes the truth about telenovelas may be somewhere in between.
"Yes, there is a falling trend. But the ratings will eventually stabilize," she says. "Telenovelas will no longer be as important as they once were, but they will continue to present outstanding audiences."
Shirley adds the expected economic slowdown here next year may be an opportunity for broadcasters.
"In a crisis, Brazilians traditionally cut pay TV subscriptions. We may also see people cutting broadband subscriptions and turning back to dialup connections," she says. "In the meantime, the good old telenovela will be available on free TV."
www.variety.com/article/VR1117996311.html?categoryId=2523&cs=1
Brazil uses phrases of Obama to promote Rio's 2016 bid
President of the Brazilian Olympic Committee, Carlos Arthur Nuzman, "stole" words from U.S. President-elect Barack Obama to promote Rio de Janeiro's 2016 Olympics bid.
Nuzman used words like "change" and "hope" to woo the support of the International Olympic Committee regarding the selection of the host city of the 2016 Summer Games.
"Rio is a passionate city that is full of beauty, diversity and energy. The games would help to promote the already social transformation taking place in Rio. You have the power to make a historic decision and to make a change, strengthening our Olympic movement," said Nuzman.
Like Obama's speech, Nuzman claims that a vote for Rio de Janeiro is a vote for change. The Olympic Games have never been held in South America. Thus, a vote for Rio de Janeiro would truly represent a change.
The vote is set to take place in October next year in Copenhagen. Also in the race are Chicago, Madrid and Tokyo.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-11/22/content_10395597.htm
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
When In Rio
BLUE-blooded society girls, supermodels and the fashion elite jetted into Rio de Janeiro last week for a dose of the scintillating style that was behind the first ever Rio Summer event. And where else but Brazil could you see Valentino Garavani and Lady Gabriella Windsor get down to the samba with a Carnival dancer, Natalia Vodianova play beach ball with her kids, and Carlos Miele's models prance alongside giant cannons to a live MC and street band?
The four-day extravaganza saw Brazilian brands pull out all the stops by cherry-picking the best holiday looks from their regular collections. Kitted out in colourful wraps and tunics while on the boardwalk, bikinis and slinky trunks when they dive in and sheer caftans and heels after they dry off, everyone has a bag ready for a stroll down the beach in Rio.
Brazil's ubiquitous summertime brand, Blue Man, chose a Bohemian Seventies rock chick as its muse and sent her down the runway in sugar coated bikinis; Salinas decorated op-art inspired swimwear with futuristic floral jewellery; Daslu took the fashion pack to a nightclub where models in its newly launched youth label 284 climbed around a disco-lit scaffold sidestepping shirtless boys doing Capoeira moves.
Cris Barros and Jo de Mer, meanwhile, went for subtle pre-beach frocks and maillots while Iodice and Triya injected fearless colour into their razor-sharp creations. Osklen, Lenny and Rosa Cha flexed their taut muscle as kings of the year-round holiday wardrobe, and Cia Maritima and Isabela Capeto took cues from more natural shapes and colour palettes. But whatever their aesthetic angle, Brazilian designers who live, work and breathe the beach are in pole position to make both resortwear and swimwear a winning niche in their business.
http://www.vogue.co.uk/news/daily/081112-rio-summer-event-roundup.aspx
The four-day extravaganza saw Brazilian brands pull out all the stops by cherry-picking the best holiday looks from their regular collections. Kitted out in colourful wraps and tunics while on the boardwalk, bikinis and slinky trunks when they dive in and sheer caftans and heels after they dry off, everyone has a bag ready for a stroll down the beach in Rio.
Brazil's ubiquitous summertime brand, Blue Man, chose a Bohemian Seventies rock chick as its muse and sent her down the runway in sugar coated bikinis; Salinas decorated op-art inspired swimwear with futuristic floral jewellery; Daslu took the fashion pack to a nightclub where models in its newly launched youth label 284 climbed around a disco-lit scaffold sidestepping shirtless boys doing Capoeira moves.
Cris Barros and Jo de Mer, meanwhile, went for subtle pre-beach frocks and maillots while Iodice and Triya injected fearless colour into their razor-sharp creations. Osklen, Lenny and Rosa Cha flexed their taut muscle as kings of the year-round holiday wardrobe, and Cia Maritima and Isabela Capeto took cues from more natural shapes and colour palettes. But whatever their aesthetic angle, Brazilian designers who live, work and breathe the beach are in pole position to make both resortwear and swimwear a winning niche in their business.
http://www.vogue.co.uk/news/daily/081112-rio-summer-event-roundup.aspx
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