A recent paper by staff of the Embrapa (Brazil) Technological Information Division presents a methodological model for the establishment of Open Access to scientific information at Embrapa.According to the authors, the model proposed, supported on Open Access rules, will contribute to effective acceleration and improvement of internal and external scientific communication. It will do this by:Promoting scientific production, researchers and institution’s visibilities, with great potential to enhance impact of results from research at Embrapa;Providing the scientific information management methodology, directed to the internal and external knowledge management (identification, capture, storing, organization, retrieval and largely dissemination);Associates and preserves the scientific...
from the North Jersey Record This shows that there actually benifit to going overseas and doing charity work. This article from the North Jersey Record profiles a man who has had enough of the rat race. - KaleBY JOHN CHADWICKDuring his days working in corporate America, Doug Garofalo may have seemed an unlikely candidate for the Franciscan religious order and its embrace of voluntary poverty.But even as Garofalo worked as an accountant for chains like Saks Fifth Avenue and Aeropostale, the River Edge native maintained a strong connection to his hometown church, St. Peter the Apostle, and kept a decidedly modest lifestyle."I had a very modest house in Hackensack," Garofalo, 46, said. "I was living as simple as possible in the retail world of Bergen County."His preference for simple,...
from Reuters Brazil is a booming economy. This report explores the economies expansion on the poor. - Kale...
from the Daily StarBrazilian President Lula da Silva has sought assistance from Nobel laureate Prof Muhammad Yunus to develop microcredit programme for the poor in Brazil, particularly for the poorest regions of the country.He also focused on the poverty alleviation programmes of the Brazilian government when Prof Yunus met him at Alvorada Palace in Brasilia on Thursday, says a press release.During the meeting, Prof Yunus briefed the president on the Grameen Bank programmes.Prof Yunus, who visited Brazil from June 11 to 14 at the invitation of the Brazilian Senate, also addressed the plenary session of the Senate where he spoke of the activities of the Grameen Bank.The speech was telecast live throughout the country on the Senate TV Channel.Following the address at the Senate, Prof Yunus...
from the Guardian BRASILIA, April 16 (Reuters) - Foods riots in Haiti and elsewhere are a wake-up call for the world to fight harder against poverty, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Wednesday."It was necessary to watch dramatic scenes for the international community to wake up to the urgency of finding a definitive solution to the challenge of poverty," Lula said during a lunch with visiting Indian President Pratibha Patil.Protests in Haiti over high prices for rice, beans and other staples ousted the government on Saturday.Rising food prices showed that the world "was poorly equipped to face and solve the worst evil of our times," namely hunger, said Lula.Across the globe bread, milk and other foods have become more expensive, fueling inflation in some...
Entrepreneurship involves risk. According to a March 6th article in the Economist, “Betting the Fazenda,” Brazilian entrepreneurs are less willing to take risk than their Chinese and Russian counterparts. What could account for this? Well it doesn’t take long to figure out why once you look at the stats from the IFC’s “Doing Business” report. Here’s what the Economist points out:
Starting a business takes 152 days and requires 18 different procedures, according to the IFC’s annual worldwide “Doing Business” study. It takes 2,600 hours for a medium-sized business to keep up with its taxes each year. The same hypothetical business would pay 69% of its second-year profits in tax, if it played by the rules and did not receive special tax breaks.
Geez! Considering...
from the International Herald Tribune The Associated PressRIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil: President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva unveiled a multibillion-dollar anti-poverty initiative on Monday to provide much-needed infrastructure and jobs in Brazil's poorest regions.Targeting some 24 million people, including about 1 million small farmers in nearly 1,000 towns across Latin America's largest nation, the government plans to spend some $6.4 billion under the program in 2008 alone.The program, which must still be approved by Congress, seeks to benefit the 60 regions of Brazil with the lowest rankings on the U.N. Human Development Index.Speaking in the capital of Brasilia, Silva called it "the second step to ending poverty," following his Family Allowance initiative that since 2003 has paid monthly...
from the Brown County DemocratBy MARYLIN DAYEarly in January 2008, a group of students from Franklin College visited Brazil to further their education in cultural and sociological studies. I accompanied the group led by professors, Dr. David Chandler and Dr. Jason Jimerson. We learned a great deal about this vast country and it’s history, society and people.Brazil is a tapestry of colors, textures and music. As a relatively new republic (1889), the history of Brazil, since the Portuguese came in search of gold and silver, has been a turmoil of dictatorships, monarchies and coups. Today the mix of peoples constantly influences this emerging, growing country. The current economy is increasing, dramatically and chaotically, almost like a child learning to ride a bike for the first...
from NasdaqPRETORIA (AP)--Brazil's president accused rich countries of keeping world trade benefits to themselves, and called for greater reform in the U.N. and international treaties.The Doha round of World Trade Organization talks are looming large over a South Africa-India-Brazil summit Wednesday that followed U.S. accusations developing countries were putting the talks in peril by refusing to open up their manufacturing markets."It is useless for us to be invited for desert and not the powerful countries' banquet," Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said as the summit opened. "This Doha international negotiations cannot be simply and purely about the agenda of the small number of developed countries."The three countries, all regional powerhouses, came together in 2003 to strengthen ties...
from The Globe and MailThe Ouro Verde co-operative is researching a unique type of rubber tree 'cancer'MICHAEL BETTENCOURTITUBERA, BRAZIL -- It may have taken three planes, a bouncy bus ride and about 18 hours of travel time to get to Itubera, Brazil, but it took only about two minutes of staring into the mouth of a thundering waterfall at Michelin's rubber plantation in the Atlantic rain forest to realize that this place was much more than a rubber factory.Set in the middle of a largely unknown jungle, one that happens to produce lots of rubber trees, the waterfall is the centrepiece of Michelin's Biodiversity Research Centre in this remote Brazilian area about 200 kilometres south of Salvador, near the Atlantic coast.When the waterfall wasn't drowning out conversations, its misty fog...
from The Voice of AmericaBrazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has called for urgent action to address climate change, poverty and social inequality.At the U.N. General Assembly Tuesday, Mr. da Silva warned about the growing risks of what he called the "unprecedented environmental and human catastrophe" if the groundwork for global development is not rebuilt. He said the dispossessed of the Earth should not have to bear the costs of irresponsibility by those he described as the "privileged few." The Brazilian leader also urged nations to pay greater attention to fighting hunger and poverty, saying there will be no lasting peace if inequality is not reduced.He called for countries to develop new energy strategies that include the use of biofuels, and for nations to fully comply...
from the World Bank“Six million Brazilians were lifted above the poverty line in 2006, said the Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV) in a study released on Wednesday. The number of Brazilian citizens living below the poverty line dropped by 15 percent in 2006 compared with 2005. The FGV stressed that it was the best result since the entity started carrying out the study in 1992. … This is the first time the population living in extreme poverty represented less than 20 percent of the country's population. [FGV economist Marcelo] Neri also stressed that the incomes of the country's poorest 10 percent of citizens rose by 57.4 percent in the period, while those of the wealthiest 10 percent increased by 6.8 percent, which helped attenuate income distribution inequalities. …” [Xinhua...
A government report on hundreds of political killings and “disappearances” committed under Brazil’s military regime is an important step toward addressing years of official impunity, Human Rights Watch said today. President Luiz Inбcio Lula da Silva presented the report on Wednesday at a ceremony with victims’ relatives in Brasilia....
It is reported that plans to build a massive South American natural gas pipeline through the Amazon rainforest from the Caribbean to Brazil have "cooled off". This was the most atrocious of many inappropriate industrial developments planned for the Amazon which Ecological Internet has publicized and protested against for several years. No rainforest is ever protected indefinitely, as badly conceived projects tend to linger on for a long time. Yet given a one and a half year delay and signs that momentum for the project has been stymied, Ecological Internet is ready to declare this campaign a victory!
Congratulations to all those that participated, the Amazon rainforest is safer given your efforts. Ecological Internet's Earth Action Network first brought concerns over the pipeline to a...
Police Accused of Summary Executions
The government of Rio de Janeiro state must ensure a prompt, thorough, and impartial investigation of the killing of unarmed individuals during recent clashes between criminal groups and police, Human Rights Watch said today. Anyone found to have unlawfully killed any of the victims should be prosecuted....
Police Accused of Summary Executions
The government of São Paulo state must ensure a prompt, thorough, and impartial investigation into the 138 deaths reported in the recent clashes between criminal groups and the police, Human Rights Watch said today. Those found responsible should be prosecuted....
São Paulo State Should Address Abuses in its Juvenile Detention Facilities
The complaint filed with the police by São Paulo’s juvenile detention agency against a leading juvenile rights defender risks intimidating other rights defenders in the state, said Human Rights Watch in a letter to State Governor Cláudio Lembo today....