Your party will win the next election and you want to make sure the media keeps providing you with reliably un-critical if not favorable coverage– here is your media strategy: you promise to change the regulatory status quo of the media before the election, and you renege on the proposed reform following your victory. The Read more about The Threat of Media Reform as Effective Media Control[…]
000…Brazil is a country of the future. —-…Brazil will always remain a country of the future if average educational achievement stays at seven years of formal schooling per capita. Higher education enrolls only 2% of the population, but consumes a quarter of the total education budget (see Hunter and Sugiyama 2009). 000…Brazil is economically stable. Read more about Bursting Bubble-Thinking About Brazil[…]
Positively, Brazil has become a lot more open over the past decade– in almost every way. My wife still recalls the limitations of a closed economy under military rule. She likes the example of yogurt: only one type of yogurt was available in the supermarket, and if you bought it and it was rotten, there Read more about Open to Competition[…]
Three Days ago I inquired about the progress of my Ph.D. validation here in Brazil, for which I applied in August, 2010. All foreign degrees (with the exception of France) have to be “re-validated.” Three days ago, I learned that they’re sending the degree back to the start, because the UFRJ doesn’t have a political Read more about Default title[…]
It is no secret that media coverage is the primary motivator of probity in politics. Without the threat of being publicly exposed, public officials are more likely to engage in malfeasance; whether it be weakening key legislation, hiding incompetence, embezzlement, accepting bribes, or deviating from due-process. In Brazil as in other parts of the world, Read more about Media Coverage, Transparency and Reform[…]
The Brazilian government has decided to keep its historical archives on the military dictatorship (1964-1985) closed, according to a report published today by ABRAJI. The move breaks with previous promises and effectively renders a conference I paid $100R to attend– International Seminary on Access to Information and Human rights –irrelevant. A boycott of the seminary Read more about Government Decides to Keep Archives Closed: Opacity to Prevail Under Dilma?[…]
Last post spoke about the insularity of large countries, of which one of the most obvious manifestations are their conventions. This convention issue is not without its slipperiness as a concept. I’ll venture forth the idea that a country tends to be conventional when greater value is placed on standard –homogeneous (traditional) formats– than diversity. Read more about Brazil’s Conventionality, Continued–and Higher Education[…]
It’s a peculiar thing about countries with large populations that they often tend to be insular, uninformed about what goes on in other parts of the world, and mildly paranoid, if not xenophobic. The U.S. provides a leading example: the intermittent periods of “isolationism” provide a testament to insularity. Proverbially clueless about the world outside Read more about Large, Insular Countries[…]
Tomorrow’s the second and final round of the presidential election and no one is holding their breath. Dilma Rouseff is poised to win, buoyed almost wholly by disproportionate popularity in the North-east of the country. A northeasterner himself, Lula has tremendous pull in this area. The PT’s popularity also owes much to the expansive success Read more about Tomorrow Decides Brazil’s Next 4 years[…]
Some disheartening facts from the recent Brazilian election, -Out of a total of 136 million eligible Brazilian voters, 18 million did not vote in the recent election, in a country where voting is mandatory for all citizens. This is nearly 15 percent of the electorate. -The “clean docket” (Ficha Limpa) law was passed just before Read more about The Believably Unbelievable[…]