From the monthly archives:

October 2007

Startup Camp Brasil

October 31, 2007

Marco, how can you organise the first StartupCamp Brasil on November 10th, my wedding day? I’m trying to convincen my wife I’ll be flying in from Sao Paulo just in time for the ceremony at 8pm; hard call though.
StartupCamp is a initiative of Marcos Gomes of Boobox and the clever boys from Monashees Capital; [...]

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The Brazilian social networking scene

October 31, 2007

Last week Flickr launched it’s Brazilian version with a party in MUBE. Myspace also launched today it’s Brazilian version. The Brazilian market is a truly unique testbed and catalyser for any web initiative; yet the guys of Not So-So are months late in launching their Spanish and Portuguese version. Yet an [...]

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Rio 2014 & 2016

October 30, 2007

It’s certain, the world cup 2014 will take place in Rio. Let’s hope two years later, in 2016, the Summer Olympics will also take place in Rio.

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Arsenal

October 29, 2007

Chosing music for November 10th and the DJs are surprised we have Belgian groups with Brazilian lyrics. The first Carioca words (mind the ‘terra’ rrrr-pronounciation in the song) I could utter were:
Olha o meninio que dança
O seu corpo a balancar
E as vezes também canta
Lalale lalalela
[youtube]NEpgbK5IJF0[/youtube]
Realising now Arsenal had quite an early-stage influence on my never-ending [...]

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Myopia: state of the economy

October 28, 2007

Watch this video of Fox, dated December 2006, 10 months ago.
[youtube]6XtQoZAqjc8[/youtube]
You all now by now that Merill Lynch reported last week a 2,3 billion US$ loss against a 3 billion US$ profit last year. All analysts were taken by complete surprise, since most lack any deep-digging foresight. Meanwhile Leterme promises the Belgians [...]

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The war over the war on drugs

October 25, 2007

The real questions in Tropa de Elite are not about the violence in Rio.  Beyond subjective perceptive, South Africa is a much more violent country then Rio de Janeiro is.
The real questions: what is the real objective of BOPE?  Is it to fight drugs, like David Muray, chief scientist of the US Office of National [...]

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Tropa de Elite

October 24, 2007

Toen ik Cidade de Deus in 2002 zag, wist ik dat ik op een of andere manier iets met Brazilië te maken zou krijgen.  Het Braziliaanse geweld roept in Vlaanderen een simplistisch reactie van gruwel op.  De realiteit is van een andere complexe orde.  Het leven in onze Vlaamse welvaartstaat is enigszins artificieel en zelfs [...]

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Homofobia

October 22, 2007

It’s a big thing in Brazil these days: the proposed new law against Homofobia.  The country is already full of laws against minorities.  When I asked for a black coffee last friday at my hairdresser, I asked by mistake for a “café negro”; I was nearly electrocuted.  Black coffee is “café puro” in Portuguese.  I [...]

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Barcamp Rio

October 21, 2007

Arrived in the RDC aula at PUC.  Around 150 people present, widely covered on Twitter and (too) many blogs.  Fugita covers it on meta.blog.br
Pictures: barcamprio on Flickr.
Marcos is also present, he just posted the launch of the API of Boobox.
 

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Chegei no Brasil

October 14, 2007

Arrived in Brazil.
Quite a contrast with grey, sleepy Belgium.  The Real is breaking records against the Euro, soon it’ll yield 0,4 R$ against 1 EU.  And that’s against the Euro, the yield against the dollar is even more staggering.  An American who was here in december 2005 paid less than 40% for a Chopp (a beer) compared [...]

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