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A new study conducted by Brazil's IT Data and released by Abinee (Brazilian Association of the Electric and Electronic Industry) this Tuesday, September 12, shows that 835,000 Brazilians bought their first computer ever this past semester.
By year's end 17% of all Brazilian homes should have a personal computer. More than two million of them will be novices who bought their first PC this year. When you count commercial and residential computers Brazilians will buy 7.2 million PCs this year alone. 3.6 million personal computers were commercialized in Brazil in the first semester of 2006, a 43% growth when compared to the same period in 2005 when 2.5 million machines were sold. Although notebooks are still prohibitive for the majority of the population, 82,000 Brazilians bought their first laptop in the first half of 2006. 250,000 laptops were sold from January to the end of July 2006. It's expected that 600,000 notebooks will be sold by year's end, almost doubling (91.7% more) last year's sales. The IT Data study also showed a decrease in the commercialization of smuggled machines. While 61% of all PCs sold in Brazil in the first semester of 2005 were partially or totally pirated this number fell to 47.7% in the same period this year. In 1999, the first year Abinee took this measurement, the number of pirated, or clone computers as they are called in Brazil, was 68%. By 2004 they had jumped to 73%. The Abinee credits this improvement in the sale of legitimate machines mainly to government measures through fiscal incentives and police action fighting the illegal market, which include not only smuggled computers, but also those assembled with pirated pieces and components. The fact that the real improved its performance in face of the dollar didn't hurt either. The federal government granted last year tax exemption to all desktops priced 2,500 reais (US$ 1,160) or less and notebooks costing up to 3,000 reais (US$ 1,390). They also launched the Computer for All program, with fiscal incentives to manufacture desktop machines using free software worth up to 1,200 reais (US$ 555). Since 2004 the legitimate Brazilian PC industry increased its participation in the market from 16% to 37%. Imported computers were also able to get a larger piece of the pie growing from 11% to 15%. The Abinee is suggesting that the government intensify its vigilance to prevent smuggling of computers and components. One little change that could give a big boost to legal machines would be for federal, state and municipal government to stop buying from the gray market. As implausible as that may be they are one of the most loyal clients of the smugglers.
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The only good thing to say about the visit to Brazil of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, on Monday November 23, is that it was mercifully short and lasted less than 24 hours. Ahmadinejad had his picture taken being hugged by president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva who gave him a warm welcome and said Iran had every right to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. 
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).
Why ?
- Because what is illegal is NOT illegal for them. Nothing new. It is all the shame shit !
- By buying smuggled computers, the various governments dont make a saving. They buy at a much higher price, with innacurate billings !
GUESS IN WHOSE POCKETS THE MONEY GOES FOR THE PRICE DIFFERENCES !!!!!!!!!
TO ALL THE COPRUPTED POLITICIANS AND HIGH LEVELS GOVERNMENTS CIVIL SERVANTS !
No doubt that the money pocketed by the crooks is 100 times larger than your ambulances scandal. Simply because 200 times more money goes into computers than ambulances....!!!!!!
And these corruptions have nothing to do specifically with Lula and his gang since many sates and municipalities are governed by all your differentr political parties.
No doubt the opposition (whoever the opposition is) will never ever accuse anyone of cheating, since they cheat as much where they govern themselves.
That is called proper management and trasnparent spendings.....in Brazil......even by the ones auditing...the various governments...because even the official auditors are as corrupted as the administrations they are "supposed" to audit. Afterall they also want their share of the cake !
Finally, contrary to what the article says : "as implausible as that may be........" what doesnt exist elsewhere.....is in fact.....the daily life in Brazil.
Just another tragedy...explaining the various administrations dont have enough money for education and infrastructures and caring for the tens of millions of needy Brazilians.
But if they collect Reais 100 in taxes, 20 go for paying interests, 40 go for official administration costs, 20 disappear in corruption, LEAVING only 20 going back to society.
The poor state of your education, healthcare and infrastructure is thus easily explainable ! Money went elsewhere meaning little money left.
Lamentable. A shame. A tragedy !