Posts tagged with "Politics"

Obama’s Visit to Brazil – Como Foi?

Posted by polyana No Comments
Mar 21 2011

So how did Obama’s visit to Brazil go? Many will argue it was somewhat “worthless,” in terms of international politics, while others call it a great step in Brazilian-American diplomacy.

One of the highlights of the visit was the speech made at Teatro Municipal in Rio de Janeiro last night. There are many videos online that you can watch, but here’s one of the beginning of the speech where you can clearly hear Obama and the interpreter so you can hear the English vs the Portuguese pretty well.

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Did you read up or see anything else about his visit to Brazil? What impact did you this the visit had, if any?

President Dilma Takes Office

Posted by Rachel No Comments
Jan 4 2011

On January 1st, Dilma Rousseff took office as Brazil’s first female president. In Brasília, she gave an inspiring speech and outlined her plans for her new administration.

Watch her speech below:

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Here are some excerpts:

“Continuaremos fortalecendo nossas reservas externas para garantir o equilíbrio das contas externas e bloquear, e impedir a vulnerabilidade externa. Atuaremos decididamente nos fóruns multilaterais na defesa de políticas econômicas saudáveis e equilibradas, protegendo o país da concorrência desleal e do fluxo indiscriminado de capitais especulativos….”

“…Queridas e queridos brasileiros e brasileiras,  considero uma missão sagrada do Brasil a de mostrar ao mundo que é possível um país crescer aceleradamente, sem destruir o meio ambiente. Somos e seremos os campeões mundiais de energia limpa, um país que sempre saberá crescer de forma saudável e equilibrada…”

“…Seguiremos aprofundando o relacionamento com nossos vizinhos sul-americanos; com nossos irmãos da América Latina e do Caribe; com nossos irmãos africanos e com os povos do Oriente Médio e dos países asiáticos. Preservaremos e aprofundaremos o relacionamento com os Estados Unidos e com a União Européia.”

You can also read the full text of her address here.

What types of verbs does she repeat throughout the speech? The answer after the jump.

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Lula on Wikileaks

Posted by Rachel No Comments
Dec 17 2010

Last week, President Lula took a moment to discuss Wikileaks and his thoughts on the controversial website. There are subtitles available in English, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese but you can also watch the video without them to practice your listening comprehension. Have a look and see if you can answer the questions.

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Questions

1.  What is “liberdade de expressão?”

2. How does Lula plan to protest?

3. According to Lula, who is guilty in this kind of scenario?

4. What is the word for nonsense or rubbish that he uses?

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President Dilma Rousseff

Posted by polyana 4 Comments
Nov 1 2010

Last night Brazilians elected their first female president and outgoing president Lula’s hand picked successor, Dilma Rousseff. Although it’s a pretty epic event for the country, these elections have been fairly controversial. While Dilma had never held an elected office before, José Serra never stays for a full term in the positions he’s held.

But alas, Dilma Rousseff was the favorite with about 56% of the votes! Last night, she announced what her plans are for the next four years, which, to the public’s appplause, includes “knocking on Lula’s door for help,” and eradicating poverty from Brazil.

See a little bit of her speech and what she has to say about poverty, pre-salt, Lula, Brazilian women, social and sustainable development in the video below:

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How does she plan on eradicating poverty?

What are her plans for pre-salt exploration?

What does she think about working with Lula?

What are her plans for women in Brazil?

and most importantly…

What do you think of her being elected Brazil’s next president?

Brazilian Elections – On to Round 2

Posted by polyana 5 Comments
Oct 4 2010

I know you guys have probably had enough of us talking about the elections in Brazil, so I’ll be brief and won’t make you read too much.

The image below taken from Folha.com shows the presidential race results, the apuração dos votos.  With no candidate having a majority vote, the top two, Dilma Roussef and José Serra will take each other on for a second round of elections on October 31st (click on the image for better viewing).

Although this was somewhat already expected, the real buzz generated has been on the number of votes Marina Silva was able to rack up considering back in March all sorts of studies showed only 7% of the population was planning on voting for her while Dilma and José Serra’s percentages stayed pretty much true to the actual results.

I was unable to “steal” videos on most news websites with thank you speeches from the candidates, but here goes a link to a great little thank you speech by Marina Silva last night: Estamos em primeiro lugar de uma nova política.

If you get a chance to watch the video (it’s 2 minutes long), why does Marina Silva consider herself a winner after not making it on to the second round of elections?

She has announced she will remain neutral for the second round, so this should be another interesting month of debate!

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