#sao joaquim farm

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

So, in Brazilian environmental justice news, the Quilombo of Gurupá, a 10 hectares area in the Amazonian state of Pará, has been for five decades under dispute between quilombolas and farmers.

Quilombos are land settlements, currently recognized by Brazil's government, founded in the past by escaped slaves of African origins, and passed to their descendants. Parts of the Quilombo of Gurupá have been claimed by the São Joaquim Farm. A quilombola has said that, in 2016, 30 farm guards arrived on boats, firing pistols and double-barreled shotguns. “They said, 'Kill this son of a bitch.'", he said. "They shot to kill. I was told to lie down". Another quilombola says farmers shouted at him "Thief, son of a bitch, rascal, bunch of black thiefs" during the conflict. The first one still has a bullet in the belly from the conflict, but the investigation was never concluded. The quilombolas also blame the farmers for two murders, one paraplegia, and theft of Brazilian berry named açaí, important for the quilombo's subsistence.

The farmers claim half the land was property of their father's, but public reports state that the father falsified ownership documents, and Justice in 2014 (and even the presidency in 2016) has declared that the land is indeed the Quilombo's. The eviction of non-quilombolas from the area and annulment of the farmers' forged property documents were determined, but haven't been carried out even two years later. The National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform (Incra), responsible for it, says that their processes have been paralyzed since January (it's currently October) due to lack of budget and the “complete depletion of the policy of demarcation of quilombola communities”.

Just like the quilombolas descend from escaped slaves, these farmers descend from slave-owning families with political influence. The almost 900 quilombolas claim that, in the 1970s, the father of the current farmers came in the area saying that those lands belonged to him, and his servants set fire to the homes of local families and evicted people. They say that since then the farm has exploited the resources available in the rest of the region. The conflict has intensified in the past decade, with the rising value of the açaí berry (to the point that it's occasionally called "purple gold"). One of the farmers has Facebook posts criticizing indigenous rights, land reform, and even the international repercussion of the increase of fires in the Amazon Rainforest. Another was a mayor of a town nearby. Those farmers have sent the Quilombolas multiple letters reiterating their property over the lands, and there are eight other farms on them as well (seven are small properties that would receive indemnification for their eviction).

The quilombolas claim while eviction doesn't happen, conflicts will continue on, which is "risk of eminent death" for them. They have received threats from the farmers, and a leader was murdered in 2014 when he was about to meet with officials from Incra and the Federal Prosecutor's Office (Justice it was a "passionate crime"). The quilombos claim local police is by the farmers' side, and local political forces work against them. A former prosecutor said that the denouncements of threats against the quilombolas "do not match the facts", and that “Since it is a conflict, there are victims on both sides. All these questions are still being cleared." A police chief claims the police has been "vehemently" fighting militias in the Pará state, and that an investigator reportedly present during a threat by farmers against the quilombolas has an "irreparable conduct". The journalists who published the original report on all this, that I'm summarizing here, say the investigator called them anonymously (but he was later identified) saying they'd "soon know who he is". In exchanged messages to them, he, normally identified, said that there are "invasions by people who claim to be quilombolas", that there is no way for the police to know "who is and who is not quilombola", and that he didn't witness any “embarrassment, coercion, or threat” when he was with the farmers and quilombolas.

Source (in Portuguese).

[guicas04]

10 Interesting Brazilian Fiction Novels

1.) “I Didn’t Talk” By: Beatriz Bracher

A professor prepares to retire—Gustavo is set to move from Sao Paulo to the countryside, but it isn’t the urban violence he’s fleeing: what he fears most is the violence of his memory. But as he sorts out his papers, the ghosts arrive in full force. He was arrested in 1970 with his brother-in-law Armando: both were vicariously tortured. He was eventually released; Armando was killed. No one is certain that he didn’t turn traitor: I didn’t talk, he tells himself, yet guilt is his lifelong harvest. I Didn’t Talk pits everyone against the protagonist—especially his own brother. The torture never ends, despite his bones having healed and his teeth having been replaced. And to make matters worse, certain details from his shattered memory don’t quite add up... Beatriz Bracher depicts a life where the temperature is lower, there is no music, and much is out of view. I Didn't Talk's pariah’s-eye-view of the forgotten “small” victims powerfully bears witness to their “internal exile.” I didn’t talk, Gustavo tells himself; and as Bracher honors his endless pain, what burns this tour de force so indelibly in the reader’s mind is her intensely controlled voice.��

2.) “The Brothers” By: Milton Hatoum

Set among a Lebanese immigrant community in the Brazilian port of Manaus, The Brothers is the story of identical twins, Yaqub and Omar, whose mutual jealousy is offset only by their love for their mother. But it is Omar who is the object of Zana's Jocasta-like passion, while her husband, Halim, feels her slipping away from him, as their beautiful daughter, RGnia, makes a tragic claim on her brothers' affection.

3.) “Crow Blue” By: Adriana Lisboa

I was thirteen. Being thirteen is like being in the middle of nowhere. Which was accentuated by the fact that I was in the middle of nowhere. In a house that wasn't mine. in a city that wasn't mine, in a country that wasn't mine, with a one-man family that, in spite of the intersections and intentions (all very good), wasn't mine.When her mother dies, thirteen-year-old Vanja is left with no family and no sense of who she is, where she belongs, and what she should do. Determined to find her biological father to fill the void that has so suddenly appeared in her life, Vanja decides to leave Rio de Janeiro to live in Colorado with her stepfather, a former guerrilla notorious for his violent past. From there she goes in search of her biological father, tracing her mother's footsteps and gradually discovering the truth about herself. Rendered in lyrical and passionate prose, Crow Blue is a literary road trip through Brazil and America, and through dark decades of family and political history.

4.) “Child of The Dark” By: The Diary of Carolina Maria de Jesus

A first-hand account of life in the streets of Sao Paulo from 1955 to 1960, details the plight of an artist, writer and single mother of three children who, while living in a hovel, supported her family by digging through the garbage for paper and scraps to sell.

5.) “The Sad End of Policarpo Quaresma” By: Lima Barreto

Policarpo Quaresma - fastidious civil servant, dedicated patriot, self-styled visionary - is a defender of all things Brazilian, full of schemes to improve his beloved homeland. Yet somehow each of his ventures, whether it is petitioning for Brazil's national language to be changed, buying a farm to prove the richness and fertility of the land, or offering support to government forces as they suppress a military revolt - results in ridicule and disaster. Quixotic and hapless, Quaresma's dreams will eventually be his undoing.

6.) “Adultery” By: Paulo Coelho

A woman in her thirties begins to question her seemingly perfect life: she is married to a rich and loving husband, has well-behaved children and a successful newspaper career. Her apathy changes when she interviews a former boyfriend, now a successful politician.

7.) “The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas” By: Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis

The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas builds on a macabre conceit���Brás Cubas, already dead, is recounting his adventures from beyond the grave. This vantage point allows Brás Cubas to talk about his life with the kind of blithe irony and callousness only accessible to those who have nothing to lose or gain.Jun 17, 2020

8.) “Lord” By: João Gilberto Noll

As Lord begins, a Brazilian author is arriving at London's Heathrow airport for reasons he doesn't fully understand. Only aware that he has been invited to take part in a mysterious mission, the Brazilian starts to churn with anxiety. Torn between returning home and continuing boldly forward, he becomes absorbed by fears: What if the Englishman who invited him here proves malign? Maybe he won't show up? Or maybe he'll leave the Brazilian lost and adrift in London, with no money or place to stay? Ever more confused and enmeshed in a reality of his own making, the Brazilian wanders more and more through London's immigrant Hackney neighborhood, losing his memory, adopting strange behaviors, experiencing surreal sexual encounters, and developing a powerful fear of ever seeing himself reflected in a mirror.

9.) “Perfect Days’ By: Ralphael Montes

Teo Avelar is a loner. He lives with his paraplegic mother and her dog in Rio de Janeiro, he doesn't have many friends, and the only time he feels honest human emotion is in the presence of his medical school cadaver--that is, until he meets Clarice. She's almost his exact opposite: exotic, spontaneous, unafraid to speak her mind. She's working on a screenplay called Perfect Days about three friends who go on a road trip across Brazil in search of romance. Teo begins to stalk her, first following to her university, then to her home, and when she ultimately rejects him, Teo kidnaps her, and they embark upon their very own twisted odyssey across Brazil, tracing the same route outlined in her screenplay. Through it all, Teo is certain that time is all he needs to prove to Clarice that they are made for each other, that time is all he needs to make her fall in love with him. But as the journey progresses, he keeps digging himself deeper, stopping at nothing to ensure that no one gets in the way of their life together.

10.) “A Cup of Rage” By: Raduan Nassar

A pair of lovers—a young female journalist and an older man who owns an isolated farm in Brazil—spend the night together. The next day they proceed to destroy each other. Amid vitriolic insults and scorching cruelty, their sexual adventure turns into a savage power game between two warring egos. This intense, erotic masterpiece—written by one of Brazil’s most highly regarded modernists—explores alienation, arrogance, machismo meltdown, the desire to dominate, and the wish to be dominated.

[louisdebraganza]

Portugal struggles to rise from the ashes of its deadliest fire

Joaquim Godinho and his wife Edite watch with blank faces and heavy hearts as a bulldozer demolishes the charred remains of their home of nearly 30 years.

"This house represented a lifetime of work, of struggling day and night," Joaquim Godinho, who built the house himself, said.

After the deadliest fire in Portugal's history devastated the central region of Pedrogao Grande, residents are now confronted with the massive task of starting over.

When the fire broke out on June 17, speeding down the hill that overlooks the village of Vale da Nogueira, 54-year-old Godinho tried in vain to save his property.

"It was impossible, I almost stayed there," the unemployed truck driver said, showing burns from the fire on his hands and face.

"We must start all over, move forward... but it's very difficult. We lost everything," said Edite, 53, who was in charge of the couple's modest family farm.

More than 1,200 firefighters worked over five days to extinguish the blaze, which burned more than 50,000 hectares (123,500 acres) and caused damage worth about 200 million euros ($238 million). The flames killed 64 people and injured 250.

A total of 460 houses in the region were damaged by the fire, including 84 that were gutted beyond repair.

'Roof over our heads'

The ravaged landscape surrounding Vale da Nogueira has changed little since the fire, but fern and eucalyptus shoots have added a touch of green to the grey hills, which bristle with burnt trees.

The air is filled with the buzz of chainsaws and rumble of trucks as locals rush to sell the blackened wood before it loses all value.

But despite a wave of solidarity that caused the Portuguese to donate around 10 million euros to the cause, rebuilding projects -- which remain volunteer-driven -- are few.

The Godinhos, along with their 24-year-old son, will be among the first to move into one of two free houses built by a group of Portuguese construction companies.

"At least we will have a roof over our heads, but it will be smaller than before," Edite said.

Forest ranger Vitor Neves, 58, lost his partner and a cousin in the fire after they were trapped inside their car attempting to flee their village in Pobrais.

He said he is as "appalled" today as he was right after the tragedy, accusing Portuguese civil protection authorities of having "badly estimated" how long it would take the fire to spread when it started.

Now busy cutting scorched fruit trees in the village of Vila Facaia, Neves also said he was disappointed by how long public aid took to reach the region.

'Eucalyptus fever'

As for the cause of the fires that strike Portugal every summer, Neves did not hesitate to point a finger at "eucalyptus fever".

Eucalyptus wood is the raw material the paper industry mainly uses and it has become the most common tree in the country -- but it is also particularly flammable.

After the fire prompted questions about forest management policies, Portugal's parliament adopted a new law in July to reduce the number of eucalyptus groves in the country.

Summer forest fires are increasingly common in Portugal, with 214,000 hectares of vegetation devastated so far in 2017, more than three times the average over the past decade, according to Portugal's Institute for the Conservation of Nature and Forest.

Residents of the tiny village of Ferraria de Sao Joao have decided to take matters into their own hands.

When June's fire came to their hamlet, which is surrounded by eucalyptus trees, their stone homes were encircled by flames -- except for those near a 200-year-old grove of cork oak trees.

So the 38 residents have started cutting down any remaining eucalyptus trees around the village and replacing them with more fire-resistant trees.

"It took this concrete example to convince homeowners to cut down the eucalyptus trees they had planted at the edge of the village for an added source of income," Pedro Pedrosa, a local ecotourism entrepreneur, said.

But Pedrosa said he has little hope the initiative will be replicated across the country. "The fire caused trauma," the 46-year-old said. "But the more time that passes, the less people will be determined to change things."

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=portugal+fires&gws_rd=cr&dcr=0&ei=8bbkWd2bLoSIaJLavbgL

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

6 Surreal Images Showing Rare Snowfall in Tropical Brazil

A cold snap has provided the rare opportunity to build snowmen in the tropical country, but it's also threatening key crops.

[Image description: man plays with snow at a farm in rural Sao Joaquim, Brazil, Thursday, July 29, 2021.]

Snow has fallen in Brazil, an extremely rare event for the tropical country. Thanks to an intense cold snap, snow or freezing rain fell in at least 43 Brazilian cities on Wednesday and Thursday, according to weather service Climatempo.

South America has been buffeted in cold air ushered north from the Antarctic this week, resulting in some decided strange scenes across the continent. But none are more bizarre than those taking place in Brazil, parts of which haven’ seen snow in decades.

“I am 62 years old and had never seen the snow, you know? To see nature’s beauty is something indescribable,” a truck driver in Cambara do Sul, a municipality of Rio Grande do Sul state, told TV Globo network.

While some were delighted by the rare opportunity to build snowmen and marvel at the white flakes, the cold snap may also come with harsh consequences for farmers because it could destroy key export crops. Earlier this week, coffee prices soared to a six-year high over fears that Brazilian coffee plants were under threat. Frost also fell over sugarcane fields in the state of São Paulo, which is responsible for over 60% of Brazil’s sugar output. And oranges, another crucial export, are also at risk.

Continue reading and see more pictures.