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CITIES-RIO: Photos of Rocinha Occupation – O Globo

Photos of the Rocinha occupation – O Globo.

COST OF THINGS: Panettone Price Comparison: Brazil x USA

Brazilian Bubble: Panettone Price Comparison: Brazil x USA.

CITIES-RIO: Deep Brazil – Rio in old postcards

Rio in old postcards.

BR BIZ: Doing Business in Brazil – World Bank Group

Unfortunately, Brazil’s ranking has dropped 6 places to 126. Brazil is losing an opportunity to become more competitive and efficient.

Doing Business in Brazil – World Bank Group.

Teaching English in Rio de Janeiro | The Rio Times | Brazil News

Teaching ESL in Rio

Teaching English in Rio de Janeiro | The Rio Times | Brazil News.

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Every year people from all over the world come to visit the Cidade Maravilhosa, many of whom try to either stay or come back looking for work, and often find it as an English-language teacher. Now more than ever, with the emerging Oil economy, 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics on the horizon, there is a demand for Brazilians to learn English.

• click here for full article

BR ECON: Steve Jobs

Article by Sérgio Malbergier, Folha de São Paulo

Steve Jobs is not Brazilian

The Apple founder Steve Jobs, died without seeing his company operate normally in Brazil.  He is rightly being hailed as a revolutionary genius who transformed the way we sell and consume culture and technology. That’s a lot. But one thing he could accomplish was to make his business occupy the space it deserves in the phenomenal Brazilian market. And that says a lot more about Brazil than Jobs.

To date, Apple products are commercialized by third parties in Brazil, as the American company was unable to develop a viable business model in the homeland of the high taxes and poor business environment.

Brazilians pay double or more than Americans for iProduto created by Jobs and his team. The last stand for the normalization of the action here was Apple’s announcement, over hyped to say the least, the construction of an IPad factory here.

The announcement came during Rousseff’s trip to China in April. In the absence of any tangible result of the visit, it was announced with great fanfare and no substance that Foxconn, the Taiwanese company that manufactures iProduto would open a new factory in Brazil to produce them here. It was what Dilma and PT needed to capture the emerging middle class in the country.

As I wrote here at that time, Apple cannot sell its products in Brazil because of its poor economic conditions, called on the Taiwanese company that manufactures and iPods, IPads in China to produce them here and so get around the precarious economic environment and still be sold as an asset of Dilma’s visit to China. There is the “spin”!

The factory as of today is still obviously a promise. First there was talk of initial production in November, then that BNDES would finance the US$ 12 billion investment, then came the talk that there was no skilled labor in the country to implement the project, then start the operation would begin with Mexican “maquiladoras” only assembling the products here.

The fact is that Steve Jobs is dead, and Brazil is still largely excluded the Apple revolution. While we continue with one of the most expensive and slowest internet connections in the world.

These are the things that explain why we are behind despite the huge advances in recent years, and our dependence on blessed commodities, which without them we would have disastrous trade deficits.

If Jobs was able to transform so much, who knows that maybe this commotion with his death will illuminates the heads of our bureaucrats and accelerate liberalization of the Brazilian market and digital technology.

Taxing technology is taxing knowledge, innovation and the future. It closed the borders to Steve Jobs.

Sergio Malbergier is a journalist. He was editor of the special money section of Folha (Dinheiro – 2004-2010) and Mundo (2000-2004), correspondent in London (1994) and Special Envoy for Folha in Iraq, Israel and Venezuela, among others. He has directed two short films, A Árvore (The Tree -1986) and Carô no Inferno (Dear Hell – 1987). He write for Folha.com on Thursdays.

• Go to original article in Portuguese

BR ECON: Insolvency in Brazil

This article will give an overview of insolvency issues in Brazil and of how it affects economy and becomes a threat to the current credit bubble that has made the country grow.

• click here for article

CITIES-Belo Horizonte: Photos

 

 

City in Photos: Belo Horizonte..

COST OF THINGS: Brazilian Bubble: Car Prices Comparison: Brazil x USA

Brazilian Bubble: Car Prices Comparison: Brazil x USA.

This is kind of old news, but we thought it would be interesting to re-post it. Just to show how ridiculous are car prices in Brazil. With inflation soaring and the Brazilian Real (BRL) recent depreciation, the price gap tends to widen. Original article here. 

CITIES-São Paulo: Bargain street

25 de Março – Arab Bargain street.

25th of March Street attracts tourists and locals alike due to the good prices and novelties offered at the 3,000 shops in the region. The boulevard grew and gained renown thanks to Arab immigrants.

Ag News Brazil

 

 

Logistics In Argentina Is The Envy Of Brazil

In addition to naturally fertile lands, the flow of production is done through a logistical infrastructure that allows, for example, that the largest bulk grain carrier in the world – Panamax with a 65,000 ton capacity – loads on Argentine side of the Paraná River and sails directly from the Port of Rosario to China.

But the competitive advantage of Argentine exports is only the end of a saga full of positive steps in the production of soybeans compared to what happens in Brazil and Mato Grosso. While tons of soybeans cover more than 2000 km from Sorriso (MT) to the port of Santos (SP) for dispatch to  China, while in Argentina the distance between the grain producing region to the port is just 500 km.

The region of Rosario, Santa Fe province, accounts for about 80% of national production of soybeans in Argentina, whose 10/11 crop reached 50 million tons. At first glance, the region could be compared to the Brazilian Cerrado due to its importance in the production of grain in the country. However, the similarity ends quickly, since in a radius of 65 km there are 13 soybean crushing plants, making it the largest region overwhelming the world with a capacity of 130,000 tons per day. To get to port, soy travels via highways an average of 300 kilometers to get to the Port of Rosario, where it can go directly to China and Europe.

This production corridor showed exponential growth in the last ten years. From four ports in last decade, there are now 12 to the north of Rosario, the result of a joint effort of public-private sectors.

The cost of one ton of freight to the port is around US$ 20, compared with an average of US$ 120 per ton from Sorriso, MT to the port of Santos (SP), a difference of 500%.

“Many advantages are revealed in favor of Argentina. Local production is booming and that can dictate the market. Without doubt this whole logistical and announced expansion of planted area towards the Chaco region, pose risks to Brazil and show how much we are lagging in relation to the logistical demands, both in Mato Grosso, in Brazil, “says technical director of the Association of Soybean and Corn Growers State (Aprosoja / MT), Luiz Nery Ribas, who saw first hand the port complex in Rosario.

source: Portal do Agronegocio

via Ag News Brazil.

BR NEWS: Options in English

Folha de São Paulo in English

The Folha de São Paulo offers daily news about Brazil in English .  It has RSS, which will allow you to add it to your Reader.   From the site in English, you can switch to Portuguese.  If you use the Chrome browser, Google Translator can be added to the toolbar, which will allow you to translate the articles in Portuguese to English or whatever language you wish.

Other Options:

• Brazzil Magazine
• BrazilIntel – Twitter
• Brazil Weekly
• MercoPress – Brazil
• Rio Times

Study Abroad Program for Brazilians

How Brazil Is Sending 75,000 Students to the World’s Best Colleges

With their economy booming, their currency at a level that makes even London prices seem cheap and their foreign policy one of the world’s most ambitious (President Dilma Rousseff this week will to be the first woman ever to open debate at the U.N. General Assembly), Brazilians have gotten used to going abroad for tourism, business, shopping and diplomacy. Now their students are finally getting an incentive to see the world, thanks to a major government program that aims to award 75,000 scholarships to attend the world’s top universities. Available only to Brazilians studying subjects of strategic national importance, like engineering, they reflect “an effort by the government to take a quantum leap in the formation of a scientific and technological elite,” says Aloizio Mercadante, Brazil’s Science and Technology Minister.

Click Here to read more

Note: They are going to have to add English language training to this program, which will increase the cost substantially as several months of language training can cost as much if not more than one year of grad school. Few Brazilian university students have sufficient English language skills to study at the graduate level in English language based programs.

NEW BLOG: Happens in Brazil – Curitiba

Hello fellow readers.

My name is Raphael, I was born in Curitiba, PR – Brazil back in December 24th 1982.

I lived in the USA twice (1999-2000 and 2003-2004), that’s where I learned to speak English.

My bachelor degree in computer analysis was earned in 2006 at PUC-PR one of the largest catholic universities of Brazil.

I’m really into high tech stuff and most of the time and early adopter of new gadgets.

The main idea of this blog is to share information about how we live down here in Brazil.

If you’re curious about another cultures or are wondering “should I go to Brazil”. Here you’ll find enough info to decide.

Hope that you like my postings and spread the HappensInBrazil blog address to your family and friends.

You can also follow the blog on Twitter @HappensInBrazil.

Click here to go to the Blog