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The continuation of economic growth in Latin America, the challenges that must be met, and the insertion of the continent in the global economy constitute the backbone of the World Economic Forum's round of discussions in Latin America, entitled "Building a Stronger Region in the Global Economy."
The event began on Wednesday, April 5, and ended Thursday. April 6, in São Paulo. 280 entrepreneurs and political and economic authorities from 27 countries participated. In their introduction to the forum, the organizers pointed out that "Latin American economic growth attained an average of 5.6% in 2004, the best performance since 1980." They also noted "an improved economic environment characteristic of the majority of the countries in the region," and they expressed their hope that this tendency will persist in 2006. Addressing the plenary session of the round, the secretary-general of the Organization of American States, José Miguel Insulza, said that "thirteen presidential elections in one year could naturally produce a climate marked, to some extent, by political uncertainly," but, in his view, the issue on the continent is no longer democratic stability but, rather, governmental quality. According to the organizers of the forum, on the website created for the event, the great majority (71%) of the participants in this round were executives and entrepreneurs, but there were also 16 government authorities and government economic officials. The Brazilian delegation included the minister of Development, Industry, and Foreign Trade, Luiz Fernando Furlan, and the president of the Central Bank, Henrique Meirelles. 29 representatives of civil society entities also attended. The event was organized around four main pillars: global and regional risks, competitiveness, the agenda of integration, and the structure of investments. There were also 21 discussion panels, which, besides mostly economic themes, touched on related matters, such as combating inequalities, social inclusion policies, gender policies, democratic stability, and the environment. Agência Brasil
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The small, coastal town of Condé is located just a twenty minute's drive from João Pessoa, the capital of Paraíba. The Northeast of Brazil has historically been a place of encounter and mixing between peoples. For millenia groups of indigenous people fished, farmed, migrated and sometimes fought along this large, fertile area. 
The Brazilian diplo-MÁ-cia (bad diplomacy) carries on its accelerated course towards the non-acknowledgment of human rights, although sometimes it takes pleasure in saying that it does precisely the opposite. The visit of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is another example of a diplomatic omission that verges on hypocrisy. 
On July 4, 2006, representatives of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay met in Caracas to sign the protocol for the entrance of Venezuela into the Southern Common Market (Mercosur). After two and a half years, the protocol was approved by the legislative bodies of Argentina and Uruguay, and as of now it may be only days away from being ratified by the continent's economic megalith, Brazil. 
Some sectors of the fight against AIDS have suggested that Thabo Mbeki, the former president of South Africa, committed genocide through his absence from the fight against the illness in his country throughout his two terms. 
One hundred and eleven years after Brazil abolished slavery, the number of workers deprived of their freedom is still huge. They raise cattle, produce charcoal, sugar cane or timber. Some of them, most undocumented Bolivians, work in basements of small apparel factories in São Paulo and other metropolis. 
On November 7, 2009 a few friends and I had an opportunity to take a look inside a Brazilian jail outside the city of Rio de Janeiro. We were able to take some amateur footage of our experience on video (see link below). It's no surprise, of course, that the typical Brazilian jail lacks some of the functionality of those in North America or Europe, but our experience that day was quite shocking. 
Depletion of the Amazon Rainforest is not a new concern facing environmentalists, biologists, ecologists, and a growing number of the Amazonian indigenous peoples. For decades they have feared for the fate of the world's most biologically diverse and species-rich hothouse. 
Geisy Arruda made history this week in Brazil, but for all the wrong reasons. What began as a poorly planned fashion statement has become a worldwide tale. Geisy decided to wear a pink mini-dress to her private college in São Paulo state, and after that, all hell broke loose. 
The push of vigilante groups in Rio de Janeiro's favelas (shantytowns) in the last three years is the most important and alarming information of the just-released study by the Rio de Janeiro University's Violence Research Center (Nupev-Uerj). 
A dispute over drug trafficking territory in Rio de Janeiro has intensified lately, leaving in its wake unprecedented acts of violence, such as the downing of a police helicopter in the northern zone of the city on October 17. Three policemen died and another two were injured. This event has drawn the attention of the international media, who are raising the issue of public security for the 2016 Olympics to be held in Rio.
As for the 21 discussion panel which touched on related matters such as combating inequalities , social inclusion polices, gender polices and so on. Are these so-called good words going to be translated into ACTION, and within a reasonable timescale?
Brazilians are yawning yet again.....roll on 2106