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The Brazilian Export and Investment Promotion Agency (Apex) promoted last night, November 23, in São Paulo city, in the southeastern state of São Paulo the award presentation ceremony for its Excellence in Exports Prize.
Awards were granted to Apex's partnering institutions that stood out in seven different foreign trade-related categories. More than 30 organizations applied for the award. According to Apex, approximately 500 people attended the event, including the Brazilian Minister of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade, Luiz Fernando Furlan and the president of Apex, Juan Quirós. The winner in the "inclusion of new companies" category was the Brazilian Association of the Manufacturers of Medical, Dental, Hospital and Laboratory Products (Abimo), which included 73 new exporting companies since 2003, a 194% increase. The award for "outstanding action in commercial promotion" went to the Brazilian Beef Export Industries Association (Abiec), which organized the "Brazilian Beef Experience" at the Sial trade show, in Paris, where visitors had direct contact with the Brazilian meat industry and the country's culture. In the "opening of new markets" category, the winner was the Brazilian Association of Independent TV Producers (ABPITV), which opened 22 new markets, mostly in the United States, Canada and France. One of its successful cases was that of TV Pingüim production company, which made a US$ 4.8 million production in partnership with a Canadian company. The award for "market consolidation" was granted to the Act Minds Consortium, comprised of information technology companies. The Consortium consolidated its presence in the US market, and its partnering companies increased their sales to the US by 375%. The "commercial intelligence" award went to the Brazilian Association of Shoe and Leather Components Industries (Assintecal), which garnered a wide range of information on over 20 different markets, and then passed it on to its associates. The "value-added product" category was won by the Brazilian Fruit Institute (Ibraf) and by the Renar Maçãs apple company, which managed to include its fruits in a United Kingdom school meal program entitled "5 a day," creating special packaging and supplying smaller apples than the ones commercialized in England, thus making it easier for children to consume their product. In the "social impact" field, the award went to the Union of Fibre Industries from the State of Bahia (Sindifibras), thanks to its sisal industry, which generated 7,100 new jobs in a year. Apex granted two honorable mentions as well, one for best performance of its Distribution Centers (DCs), which went to Weril Musical Instruments, based at the association's DC in Miami; and another mention for "project management" to the Brazilian Plastic Institute (INP), which promotes its Export Plastic program since 2003, in partnership with Apex. Among those present at the award ceremony were the presidents of the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce, Antonio Sarkis Jr.; of the Federation of Industries of the State of São Paulo (Fiesp), Paulo Skaf; of the Brazilian Tourism Institute (Embratur), Jeanine Pires; of the Brazilian Foreign Trade Association (AEB), Benedito Fonseca Moreira; of the Brazilian Postal Service, Carlos Henrique Custódio and of the Brazilian Micro and Small Business Support Service (Sebrae), Paulo Okamoto. Also attending the event were former president and current treasury director of the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce, Paulo Sérgio Atallah, the Chamber secretary general, Michel Alaby, and the Chamber director, Wladimir Freua. Anba
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Brazil received a huge boost in its international image with its selection as the host of the 2016 Olympics, but it was really just the cherry on top of the overall recognition of the country's ascension to the ranks of one of the world's most important countries. Now, as it finally takes its place on the world scene, there has been a great deal of concern about what kind of image Brazil hopes to project, now that the world is really paying attention. 
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.