Oi, the swedish national television has been broadcasting a BBC series treating a journey on the amazon made by Bruce Parry. You can find more information on the journey here and watch the series here (I believe you have to be in Sweden to do so as friends abroad told me that my links doesn´t work – how ever in case you´re not able to see it; go pirate!).
So long // M.
Hey, my mum posted this link a few days ago for me. Ten perfectly executed shots of the Amazon as I got to know it.
Our film has finally reached the web and here´s the vimeo link for it. The film is in portugese and the subtitles are in swedish. Feel free to contact me if you´re interested in screening and/or a dvd copy.
//M.
I just watched a good documentary on the deforestation problem of the Amazon.The documentary is called “Växer pengar på träd?” in swedish but is a british production. I find the name funny as my classmates made “Pengar växer på träd” a documentary touching the same theme on another location and during different circumstances. The angle and the solutions as presented in “Växer pengar på träd?” gave another view on the problem and maybe, hopefully, a glimpse of the future as the documentary exposes options on how to actually make money (even more money than soy) by preserving the rainforest.
Many of the solutions on the problem presented on the Wsf for example merely includes the capitalistic model as we know it when discussing and solving the environmental problems related to the Amazon. In the documentary we get to see entrepreneurs and visionaries whom believes and actually make a living out of preserving rainforest and selling the emission rights to companies. Critics often claim that emission rights only serves as a boost when profiling a company as environmentally concerned and that there´s no true gain in the long run. I find it peculiar as the criticism often comes from spokespersons of NGOs which in my opinion is used in the very same sense. In this case as presented by the documentary the question of guilt is erased and the preservation of the rainforest evolved into the very product which excludes by definition the pure cosmetique way of handling business – such as being wreckless, as seen in the case of Cargill – and opens for future with the capitalistic model and sustainable situation in the Amazon.
I find it to be an interesting documentary and truly recommend you to watch it. It enlightens one with new solutions has some interesting interviews. It´s not top notch when it comes to editing or the footage used but as a source of information it serves its purpose.
Take care and check www.lavaland.se for articles written by me in swedish.
//M.
Aloha, as I´ll stay in Stockholm for a while my original aim with this blog is hard (to say the least) write any posts within. But I like to write and will further on write in swedish every now and then at Lavaland here. So for my swedish reader, go check right away! You guys from ehh, where ever you come from (haha I´ve seen visitors from North Korea but when googling found out that many place their proxy there…) go google.com/translate and then my link!!
Anyway, I´ll keep posting links to brazilian issues I find funny, or as I´ve been doing for a while: posting links to what ever 
Here comes some techno brega with Banda Ravelly for you heads out there!
//M.
Uhh, a friend of mine, Bill, just posted this link about a techno brega band from Bahia called Banda Djavu. Translated for non-portuguese speakers (check the link any way as it has a video with the group performing) the author adress “A clip with Banda Djavu from Bahia who´ve reached great success in entire Brazil by performing our music from Pará. How ever I only wonder why the stole our song and just rename them!?“
This is the true backlash to the techno brega industry; the songs I´ve heard from this band so far are classical hits in Pará by now as performed by Vivianne Batidão and many more. Piracy is all good with when still respecting the artists – giving them the proper cred, and if possible money – here these copycats apparently just broke the code and takes the debate to a whole new level.
Unfortunenatly I can´t find any of the original track on either youtube or by googling but I can assure you, Banda Djavu are not the real McCoy.
The links are in swedish and the story goes more or less down like this: After a raid on the Farc guerilla in Colombia swedish weapons has been encountered and this is commented by Bofors (swedish weapon producer) saying “It´s tragic. We´ve saled arms to a variety of countries in South America…”. It´s a pity that this is, and will continue to be, a reality. (DN)
How ever what I find more interesting is the fact that ongoing attempt on a debate is started by the NGO Ofog which haven´t recieved proper attention to their arguments. Martin Smedjeback in court concludes that this is a self-defense reaction to a unbearable situation (referring to the swedish arms export to countries as South Africa and the ongoing negotiations with India) for the people who either gets killed directly by the sold arms or, more important, the ones who indirectly dies due to lack of tax-money to fight poverty.
The argumentation is interesting as he do find support in the swedish law for his actions and I remain stunned that only a few have raised their voice on the topic in our neutral, peace hugging, country Sweden. Silence is certainly not a way of handling these issues and we have our history to look back upon. Or are we actually proud of the expression, coined during the WWII, “En svensk tiger*” (A swede remains silent).
*It´s actually a game of words implying that a swedish person is a tiger by remaining mute, or at least playing with the thought.
During my stay in the north of Brazil I entered many realities one them happenned to be techno brega – the electronic version of the traditional Brega – which was the main theme for the region(earlier posts on the theme here and here). The origin of techno brega is Belém, the capital of Pará, where one can´t walk an hour without being exposed to either the music itself or spin-off effects such as street dealers with the latest cd´s or flyers for upcoming parties.
How ever, besides the obvious – techno brega is a unique and some what creative music style – the economics behind the boom is quite not what we´re used to. I just found a great article giving a good view of how it works and why ditching copyright laws actually can be a solution to the ongoing piracy debate. Check it out here.
Ps. Swedish readers check Åsa da Silva Vegheds radio program on brazilian music (Sundays p2 14:00).
