tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-79472092011-08-01T11:51:59.975-07:00Building a picture of reality from the ground-upnajihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08622723094487486625noreply@blogger.comBlogger181100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7947209.post-90216800708381613542009-05-03T06:54:00.002-07:002009-05-09T07:27:38.859-07:00

This post marks the end of my first 6-mth trip to Brazil:)

najihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08622723094487486625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7947209.post-13954992875204373782009-04-04T14:45:00.006-07:002009-05-01T21:53:16.817-07:00

The social benefits of the Tupi in deserts of capital, where people can produce but have no means of triangular exchange, is enormous. But as Ari confirms the next day when I track him down at a meeting of several representatives of communities managing Tupi-based trading systems, the system is not meant to work for millions of people, and certainly, in his opinion and those sitting around the

najihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08622723094487486625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7947209.post-70349294588495808002009-03-03T13:43:00.000-08:002009-05-08T23:04:58.915-07:00

It’ cold, grey, windy and raining. No I haven’t cut my trip short and returned to London, in fact my brother tells me the sun is shining and the weather is blue in London, and people are half-naked in the parks. It’s the beginning of July, the onset of a Brazilian winter. This grey Sunday will not stand in the way of the weekly fair in the Paso do Peisce, a community of around four hundred people

najihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08622723094487486625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7947209.post-65405674780082265252009-02-05T13:14:00.000-08:002009-05-08T23:00:08.165-07:00

As I take a bite and stare at the black seeds embedded in the apple I am holding, it hits me: One day I might be forbidden by law to take that seed and plant it in my back yard. The fact that I don’t have a back yard is irrelevant. It’s the principle that bothers me. That seed might be the intellectual property of a bunch of shareholders on the other side of the planet. Planting the seed and

najihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08622723094487486625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7947209.post-24820631702409572962009-02-04T13:42:00.000-08:002009-05-04T22:01:54.097-07:00

…Can you not hear me up there? This shit aint working out for us down here! Cheap imports and a strong currency are somehow making milk from Italy cheaper than the milk I just squeezed out of this cow right here! And how on earth are we meant to finance investments with double-digit interest rates? Market pricing is squeezing our profits to below profitability. We have already lost over 1.3

najihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08622723094487486625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7947209.post-71464099214361183252009-02-02T13:30:00.000-08:002009-05-11T18:02:29.848-07:00

Brazil, before 1990, was a closed economy, shaped by the ‘economic fashion’ of the time, based on import substitution. This model required active government involvement, favouring certain imported products over others using tariffs, and supporting specific sectors of the economy by subsidising them. This model favoured industry, and money collected from people and borrowed funds were used to

najihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08622723094487486625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7947209.post-86633309513373182602008-12-12T12:55:00.000-08:002009-07-05T17:33:20.485-07:00

And participation? This brings us to Brazil in the mid eighties. Civil society awakens after the long military dictatorship. It stretches its arms after years in handcuffs, looks around, and notices that it has a lot of work to do. It embarks on a mammoth journey to build a just society based on equal rights and equal access to the system of governance, aimed at lifting its people out of poverty

najihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08622723094487486625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7947209.post-72108384424152910492008-11-11T12:54:00.000-08:002009-05-05T10:23:27.283-07:00

This discussion of human rights was triggered off by Itamar’s claim that the investments needed in the favelas were people’s rights, not a favour. How serious is the problem though? Let’s face it there are unemployed and homeless people in most major cities in this world. What makes Brazil and Rio so special? The fact is, not much. Cities with large sections of the population living excluded and

najihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08622723094487486625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7947209.post-87041596524549393372008-10-10T13:52:00.000-07:002009-05-01T10:57:21.269-07:00

Before we explore the practical question of participation, which so many groups and institutions including global leaders agree is an essential ingredient for poverty reduction, let’s philosophise a little. What I am about to share with you is the philosophical basis upon which our communities are built on. What I am hoping will become clear is that what we are told is sphere is actually cube.

najihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08622723094487486625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7947209.post-58126757897791064042008-09-09T13:45:00.000-07:002009-05-08T22:45:16.038-07:00

I go to the nearest Internet Café and I type in a key word. My floppy disk now contains a document that, to my dismay, has never been shown to me before. I download what should arguably be the most widely read document in history: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The fact that I have never read this document stands smack in the face of the General Assembly. For right after this act

najihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08622723094487486625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7947209.post-7483194363909019032008-08-08T13:43:00.000-07:002009-05-08T22:30:59.791-07:00

The blacks have been struggling to carve themselves a road out of misery ever since they were brought over from Africa, slaved away for almost four hundred years, and left to fend for themselves as underdogs in a ruthless system. Today, five hundred years later, their struggle continues.  Let it be known, Brazil is a country in segregation. In today’s Brazil there is no need to have the words ‘

najihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08622723094487486625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7947209.post-8734052140226285832008-07-07T13:27:00.000-07:002009-05-08T22:02:58.997-07:00

Monica is so smooth and funky on that mike her vibe resonates in the homes, offices and cars of favela and barrio residents of Gran Tijuca. To my surprise she introduces me to her listeners and asks me to express my thoughts of Brazil. I talk of my instant love for the people, the beaches, the sunshine, the mountains, the nature and the whole Carioca world that has welcomed me to Brazil. I also

najihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08622723094487486625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7947209.post-16105247309771239802008-06-06T13:18:00.000-07:002009-05-08T21:48:18.254-07:00

Most interactions people outside the favelas have with people from the favelas are either on a one to one basis, as employees who don’t dent their wallets, or as a statistic; ‘four narco-traffickers killed by police raid earlier this morning’. But few understand the people of the favelas as a community. As I walk through the morro do Borel and see Monica and Gisella interact warmly with so many

najihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08622723094487486625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7947209.post-89262697415267002552008-05-05T13:15:00.000-07:002009-05-08T21:38:35.553-07:00

Since the 1970’s, a profitable trade has been emerging in the favelas, offering the poor a seemingly easy way out of poverty. This is the trade in drugs. Unfortunately narco-trafficking is not just illegal, and therefore does not help the integration of favelas into society, but affects the lives of each and every resident of favelas. As if the hardships of poverty were not enough, ordinary

najihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08622723094487486625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7947209.post-57518249211955567662008-03-02T13:04:00.000-08:002009-05-08T21:40:19.510-07:00

The next 100 years, from 1888 to 1988 brought tremendous technological changes. The rural sector began to experience the improved efficiency of adopting the new technologies. The use of tractors, fertilizers and pesticides improved efficiency, but required huge investment. It also reduced the need for labour. If you had a small piece of land though, this investment was not worthwhile. So market

najihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08622723094487486625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7947209.post-69808024623010266432008-02-02T11:52:00.000-08:002009-05-01T10:52:00.024-07:00

najihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08622723094487486625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7947209.post-58870605839946750862008-01-01T11:48:00.000-08:002009-05-01T10:50:12.839-07:00

While Spanish colonial America was developing great leaders who inspired millions to dream of freedom, Brazil’s resistance was sporadic. Any uprisings were swiftly crushed by the military. Many slaves escaped and hid in communities protected by isolation and vegetation. These were known as Quilombos.  Most however were hunted down and destroyed. There was no one to fight for them. Even the

najihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08622723094487486625noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7947209.post-38522509435955237952007-12-01T11:44:00.000-08:002009-05-01T09:58:28.393-07:00

Two cultures clash as the ships carrying the drooling Europeans bridge the vast expanse of water that had kept them apart since the beginning of time. From the East they arrive, driven by an economy based on the rules of capitalism. Armed with superior technology, they come across semi-nomadic people living a subsistence life. The indigenous people of America had a set of beliefs based on

najihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08622723094487486625noreply@blogger.com0