News and opinions on current events from “The Land of the Southern Cross”.
I mentioned this attraction in a previous post, but that did not give it nearly the coverage it deserves. Mini Mundo is what we in the Model Railroading community call a “garden railway”. But it is certainly not your “garden variety” garden railway. It’s creators have gone all-out to make sure there is something for…
Author’s note: Back when I was running a website called “Best of Brazil”, I would regularly post interesting facts and stories from Brazil. Of all of the things I shared there, this has to have been my favorite. Enjoy! Our story begins when Silvia Renate Sommerlath was born in wartime Germany, to a German father…
A couple weeks ago we had the privilege of speaking to a group of kids at at a local camp. As we were telling them about some of the Brazilian wildlife, they became very fascinated with pictures of the capivara – the world’s largest rodent. I regret not showing them this video! ______________________________ Did you…
In Brazil’s large cities there is an honored tradition called the panelaço. Basically, what happens is people disgruntled with one particular politician or other will stand at the windows of their high-rise apartments and bang on pots and pans. Here is one recent example: In the wake of the mass confusion and fear surrounding the…
On Monday Michael and I had a unique and very educational experience. We were given the opportunity to attend a seminar put on by the government of the state of Maranhão on the next steps for the development of the Alcântara Launching Center. Now before going on, you might want to read this post for…
Danilo Gentili is a highly successful Brazilian comedian and talk-show host. He can be downright hilarious. He also takes special joy in skewering pompous (usually, but not always, leftist) politicians, in very irreverent ways. And that last one could land him in jail. It all started when he posted some pretty disrespectful tweets about a…
A few months ago I published an article about the nascent Brazilian homeschooling movement. Since then many have asked for an update. There has been much movement, but no definite resolution. I will try to summarize what is going on. First off, some took umbrage to my use of the word “ban” in the title…
On Tuesday Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro visited US President Trump in Washington. The visit, of course, generated much press here in Brazil, and in the US as well. Amidst all the hoopla, the two presidents hammered out several agreements, all of which can be found here. Among said agreements is this one: Now, there is…
For most of the 2018 Brazilian election cycle I have limited my comments on the politics of this country to some random social media posts, and more complete coverage over at the Best of Brazil Blog. In fact, for those who are just tuning in, I would recommend going here and starting at the earliest…
I started the Best of Brazil Blog back in June in order to have a place to post exclusively about Brazilian culture, society, and current events (with a healthy dose of funny videos, to lighten things up). My idea was to free this blog up to be exclusively dedicated to our ministry here. However, there…