Clipmarks | brazilnut72's Blog This collection

Is Nothing Sacred Anymore?

Sat, 26 May 2007 14:08:44 GMT

clipped by: brazilnut72
clipper's remarks: Even the Christ the Redeemer statue is not safe from corruption.

Clip Source: secretcommunique.blogspot.com

Police in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, have broken up an alleged multi-million-dollar scam involving the famed Christ the Redeemer monument, a towering statue of Jesus with extended arms that is one of the world's most visited tourist locations.

Police say the employees turned in tourist fees for only one of every 15 official tour trams visiting the monument, keeping the rest of the money for themselves. The cost to visit the Christ the Redeemer statue is about $10, and the monument has millions of visitors each year. Police estimate the suspects were allegedly pocketing some $50,000 to $250,000 a month.

Tags: brazil, brazilian, cristo redentor, christ the redeemer, corruption

Brazil Assumes Responsibility--sort of.

Fri, 25 May 2007 14:18:48 GMT

clipped by: brazilnut72
clipper's remarks: The fact that they are admitting that the controllers may have had something to do with it is progress.

Clip Source: www.airportbusiness.com

The president of the Brazilian flight controllers union said yesterday that poor worker training and radar coverage contributed to the country's deadliest plane crash, which involved two pilots from Long Island and killed 154 people.

Testifying before a congressional commission investigating Brazil's troubled air traffic control system, Jorge Botelho said aviation authorities share responsibility for the midair collision for not adequately schooling controllers in English. He said the country's radar coverage also has blind spots.

"In my view, the controllers could have erred," Botelho said, "but I can't accept punishing the controllers without punishing the authorities that didn't provide the adequate means or didn't overcome the deficiencies that could have brought the controllers to the accident."

Tags: brazil, gol, airline, crash, controllers

Curitiba--the Green City

Fri, 25 May 2007 13:28:58 GMT

clipped by: brazilnut72
clipper's remarks: I was in Curitiba several years ago, and was very impressed back then--especially when I compared it with what I knew of Brazil up until that point.

Clip Source: www.genexe.com

Curitiba is the capital city of Parana, in southern Brazil and is considered one of the best examples of urban planning in the world. In 1965, the population was 350,000 and called itself “the ecological capital of Brazil” in the 1980s for its “Green” policies and systems. Today, the city has 1.8 million people and 3.2 million in the metropolitan region. The streets have a bus system that gets used by 85% of Curitiba’s population. The roads consists of two one-way streets surrounding a smaller two-lane street which is exclusively used by the express buses. Buses arrive at the tubular boarding stops every 30 seconds. The city has a garbage-recycling program that separates its garbage for recycling and has 82 sq ft. of green space per inhabitant.

Tags: curitiba, ecology, brazil, brazilian