Today I visited Global Voices, a website that dedicates itself to the curation and promotion of global blogs. The thing that’s so interesting about this site, is that you really get an idea of what is going on in other countries through the people that actually live there. Issues and stories that are often ignored by global media outlets are amplified here, for the purpose of a global discussion and awareness.
I chose to examine recent blogs from the past 2 months from Brazil- for no apparent reason. I was shocked at what I found for 2 reasons- first, as I mentioned above, many of the “hot” issues in Brazil I was not aware of as they aren’t covered by media here in the U.S; and second, the majority of concerns of Brazilians are identical to the U.S., but with very stark nuances. Below I’ve rounded-up the main blog topics I found in the Brazilian blogosphere, and offered general comparisons to what’s going on here in the U.S.
The Environment
There’s a newcomer to Brazil’s environmental ministry- Carlos Minc- who has recently replaced Marina Silva, world renowned for her crusades to preserve the Amazon rainforest. The blogosphere shows concern from Brazilians, who hope that Minc will continue to retain continuity in environmental policies. Mainly, bloggers seem to concern themselves with a single aspect of Brazil’s environmental policiy- one that I’ve noticed trickles down into other issues through other blog readings- and that is holding business responsible by environmental regulations BEFORE banks loan money or issue credit for development in rural areas of the Amazon. Most bloggers believe that the key to further advancement for Brazil is by developing the Amazon, but there needs to be a planned relationship between preservation and development. This is evident in recent riots between rural Amazon indian tribes and electric companies building dams along in Xingu River in the Amazon.
Energy
While energy is on the minds of bloggers in Brazil, the issues offer a stark contrast to energy issues here in the U.S. While we are concerned with energy conservation and the rising costs of oil, Brazilians are concerned with the management of big-oil companies, most notably how they dispose of their waste. Chevron-Texaco is under fire for improperly disposing of waste at the Amazon basin in Ecuador, a nearby neighbor of Brazil. Inhabitants of that area are reporting health problems- including cancer- are calling on tougher accountability and restrictions of the big oil companies in that region. You can read more about it here, and watch more about it here.
Cyber Politics
New cyber regulations were announced by the Brazilian Justice for the 2008 local elections, and they affect the blogging community in Brazil greatly. The new regulations forbid campaigning through social media sites such as Twitter, You Tube and Orkut 2 days before through 1 day after the elections. During this time, bloggers must delete all banners on their blogs that endorse a specific candidate, or that person’s candidacy could be banned. What I found in reading the blogs is that Brazilians seem less concerned about how this affects their freedom of speech, and more confused about the details of the regulations themselves. Bloggers are angry that the Justice has very limited knowledge of the internet and its workings, especially from a social media sense, and are angry that many of the regulations imposed upon them simply make no sense. An entire post dedicated to this can be found here. It will be interesting to see how these new laws play out later this year during Brazil’s elections. It’s also interesting to compare this to the election campaigns that are currently playing out in the U.S., where entire staffs are appointed to run social media campaigns.
Social Media and Business
Here in the U.S. we know that a bad company blog can often be the kiss of death, isolating customers and angering the blogosphere. Look to Mazda, and McDonald’s Lincoln Fry blog for examples, or read Scoble and Israel’s “Naked Conversations” for more info. In Brazil, rather than trying to blog themselves, a popular beverage company decided to invest in 13 already popular bloggers in the country and pay them to blog about their thoughts on a new beverage the company was launching. Other members of the blogosphere, began to point fingers, referring to these paid bloggers and their sites as “rent-a-blogs.” This has led to a major debate between those paid to blog for a company, and those who criticize them. It seems that Brazilian businesses are aware of how social media can be used as an advertising tool, but the blogosphere is still unsure of how to deal with it.
Obama
Yes, Obama and the “Yes We Can” phenomena has spread all over the world. The upcoming election for the next President has the potential to be a historical event if Barack Obama is elected. The potential of the first black President is something that has given many Americans hope for change, and unified different groups of people together like never before. This election is just as exciting for people in Brazil as it is to us. Brazil has the largest population of African descendants, generally “mixed” into the demographics of the country, while the U.S. remains segregated as far as unified political views and issues across races. The election here is causing many Brazilians to question how its possible that the U.S. may have a black President, while the same situation there seems as if its something they may never see in their lifetime. Our upcoming election seems to be adding to an ongoing dialog of race debates and debates over affirmative action in Brazil, a situation not so different than what’s going on in our backyards.
1 Comment
July 15, 2008 at 7:29 pm
nice read
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