Brazil ensures net neutrality

After years of discussion and six months being discussed as an urgent subject in the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies, the set of laws regulating the internet (known as the civil landmark of internet) was approved this Tuesday. The law still has to be approved by the senate, where the government has a more comfortable position. Its approval means the president was able to control the allies rebellion and also puts Brazil on the map of an international discussion over the issue of network neutrality (that has been opposing Internet Service Providers, as the Telecom companies, and Internet Companies, such as Google).

Activists celebrate the approval of the internet law
that ensures net neutrality in Brazil

Folha de S. Paulo front page today was about the law passing. The newspaper said it puts Brazil in the vanguard of the internet, calling the law a "constitution" of the internet. It mentions, though, that the text changed after the lobby of Google to remove the determination to nationalize data centers for all the business conducted in Brazil  -- which would impose that all virtual services had a local server in Brazil. This demand was not on the original project and was put in the text after the NSA scandal broke the news. It was supposed a political statement from Brazil, against the American surveillance.

O Globo said the law puts Brazil in the vanguard of the internet. The newspaper front page, though gave more space to the scandal on Petrobras, which just had one of its former directors, Paulo Roberto Costa, arrested because of a overpriced purchase of a refinery in Pasadena. The president of Petrobras, Maria das Graças Foster gave an exclusive interview for O Globo and stated it will investigate thoroughly the issue.

On the economic ground both newspapers also mentioned the reaction after Brazil had its national rating cut by Standard & Poor's. Contrarily to what might be expected the stock market and the currency reacted positively, because the market have already taken into account such measure from the rating agency.

Finally to complete the subjects covered in the media last week, the proximity of the 50 years of the military coup in Brazil motivated a series os special reports on the main media. Folha de S. Paulo again made a multimedia rich, Snowfall-like, special report on the military dictatorship, which is very interesting. The newspaper covers the whole process that led to the coup, trying also to put in context the role of the Brazilian left at that time, which was also fighting for its own revolution. The story also pointed out to the unsettled case of the amnesty to military torturers and brings the transcriptions of the US ambassador and presidents John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, both supporting the military coup. O Globo is publishing during this week a series of stories about the coup.

Dilma faces turmoils as election agenda gains the media

President Dilma inducted six ministers this Monday,
two of them were nominated to make amends with PMDB

From now on no news on the politics section is unrelated with the election for presidents, governors, deputies and senators on october. Every announcement, every quote from a political personality has now a direct reference to the dispute between Dilma and so far the two other possible candidates (Eduardo Campos from PSB and Aécio Neves from PSDB).

The electoral tone was all over two stories that represented a downturn to Dilma on the last couple of weeks: the mess in the energy sector and the dispute with PMDB, the major allied party of Dilma. In the first case, Rui Falcão, president of PT (Worker's Party, the PT of Dilma) declared that PMDB was only interested in positions in the government and not as much in reaching the greater good for the country. Eduardo Cunha, the leading deputy of PMDB in the Congress started a rebellion and threatened to go against some of the most important projects of the government such as the Marco Civil da Internet (the Civil Landmark of the Internet -- a set of rules for the internet business in the country), due to be voted this week.

Initially Dilma tried to ignore the opposition inside her own allied base. But after realizing the power of the unpleased allies she decided to nominate two of PMDB approved names for the ministrers of Agriculture and Tourism. Ironically the crisis that started with a critic of the PMDB greediness for positions inside the government is being solved by providing PMDB with positions in the government.

Another setback for Dilma was in the energy area. Briefly put, the government decided to anticipate the end of some of the energy contracts last year (this way provoking a cut in the energy prices for the end consumer, that would represent a discount of 28% for residential users). The project backfired as it stimulated energy consumption in a time of the year where the hydroelectric dams were not getting as much rain as in the previous years. This forced the electric system to turn on the thermoelectric plants that are more expensive. In order to keep its promise of a cheaper energy, the government decided to subsidize the energy bill by putting billions to pay the extra cost of thermoelectric energy. After denying for several weeks that that was a crisis in the sector, the government decided to acknowledge the problem and promised to not interfere in future contracts at the same time it waved with a tax increase to cover the future costs of the more expensive energy. It was one perfect example of how not to manage a country, given by a president that sold an image of a great manager in the energy department.

Both situations show how bad the current government, and I would dare to say the current president, deal with this sort of conflicts. When faced with a situation where there is a need for negotiation the government usually try to impose itself first and end up being obliged to step back and offer a much more costly and inefficient solution in the end.

Street-sweepers' strike and racism in Brazil

One of the most relevant news in this year's Carnival was the street-sweepers strike in Rio de Janeiro. Even after the union of street-sweepers reached a deal with the city hall in the middle of the celebration, part of the workers disagreed and refused to clean the streets, as millions danced samba and produced tons of garbage.

The dissident workers said the union leaders were not looking for their peers best interest and decided to continue with the strike. After eight days, they conquered a 37% increase in their salary on a meeting with the city government on saturday (March 8th), a much better result than the 9% the
union agreed on monday (March 3rd).

The episode shows two sides of the Brazil's social inequality. First, the vulnerable representation such workers have. The difference between the salary raise the union leaders agreed upon (9%) and the final result after the dissidents protests (37%) shows how union leaders and politicians worked in collusion against the street-sweepers best interest.

On top, doctors (mostly white) protest
against the government last yer.
Below: street-sweepers (mostly black)
on strike in Rio

The second aspect relates to the racial inequalities in the country. The street-sweepers strike showed clearly a vast majority of  black workers. This contrasts with the predominance of white doctors that protested last year against the government, against the program that import physicians from Cuba and other foreign countries. The striking difference of the images was shared this past week in social media, reminding one of the hidden faces of the Brazilian racism, that is usually hidden under social inequalities.

Next week I'll come back to the business, financial and political commentaries. For the time being, it worths saying in this matter that Dilma Rousseff is dealing with a rebellion from her allies. The biggest party that composes the situation coalition, PMDB, is threatening to retreat its support after the Rui Falcão, president of the Workers' Party (PT, Dilma's party), said during the Carnival that all that PMDB's members want are more ministries and government positions. The real reasons for PMDB moves are abundant and for sure are not related solely to Falcão's declaration -- hopefully I'll be able to address some of them here next week. For now, both parties are now trying to mend the alliance that will be crucial in this election year.

World Cup: 100 days to go

This tuesday marked the 100 day countdown to the 2014 World Cup. It is really an interesting coincidence that this event that fueled the protests of last year reaches this symbolic milestone now, as millions of people are occupying the streets of Brazil -- just this time for a different reason: to celebrate the Carnival. 

[If the tranquility of the Carnival mass celebration, in clear opposition to the violence of the protests, may strike you as a contradiction bear in mind two things. First  the Carnival is a people's party, so it may be seen as opposed to the opulent stadiums built for the benefit of a few. Another hypothesis is that the Carnival is the moment when the "silent majority" that actually disapproves violence in the protests (as seen through the Data Folha survey) actually comes to the street. These are at least two reasons I could think of.]

In Rio, millions celebrated the Carnival,
that had no reports of protests

Both O Globo and Folha de S. Paulo dedicated different stories to the landmark towards the World Cup. Just O Globo put with all the letters that the event is dividing the country. In a beautifully written article published on the sports section, the newspaper interviews two former players from the Brazil football (I'll always mean soccer by that) team with distinct visions of the World Cup and its meanings. The text start by saying that so far the sole legacy from the event are the protests and calls this 100 days journey as a journey to self discovery. 

Folha decided to approach the event with a different strategy. In the Economics section, the newspaper talked about the inflated prices in hotel rooms and how they are driving an increase in temporary rents from people that own houses near the stadiums that will host the event -- an american tourist paid US$ 1,640 for renting a three bedroom apartment near the stadium of Porto Alegre, more than what could be earned in a whole month in the area. In another related article it also says that the hotels in the cities that are just serving as training sites for the football teams are not receiving much reservation from tourists. 

The controversial part of the tournament was raised by the OpEd section in an article signed by Ronaldo Nazario (Ronaldinho), a member of the committee in charge of organizing the World Cup. The former Brazil forward plays defense on the text, saying the US$ 3.4 billion investment on the stadiums since 2007 were not much compared to the  US$ 323 billion spent on health care in the same period. "Brazil is progressing a lot, in social and economical terms, and has been correcting the inequalities in the recent years. We need to keep pursuing a better country. This final is played every two years in october and not in july", says Ronaldo calling protesters to express their dissatisfaction in the ballots and not inside or outside the stadiums.