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Monthly Archives: March 2015

Your US-Brazil Trade Assist: Doing Business with Brazil

29 Sunday Mar 2015

Posted by Rosaliene Bacchus in Brazil, Economy and Finance

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Brazil Statistics Bureau, Brazil Trade Statistics 2014, Devaluation of Brazilian Real 2015, Doing business with Brazil, US Census Bureau, US International Trade in Goods and Services 2014, USA Trade with Brazil 2005-2014, Your US-Brazil Trade Assist

USA Trade with Brazil 2005-2014

USA Trade with Brazil 2005-2014
Source: Your US-Brazil Trade Assist

Finally…I have completed my yearly three-month project of updating my website featuring Your US-Brazil Trade Assist. For the most part, it’s tedious work—checking for broken links—but important for providing users with useful and current information.

Based on the US International Trade in Goods and Services January 2015, published on March 6 by the US Census Bureau, the above chart shows US trade with Brazil over the last ten years. Brazil is America’s ninth largest trade partner with total trade (imports and exports) in goods and services valued at US$72.8 billion, representing 1.8 percent of US trade with all countries. America’s top three trading partners are Canada (16.6%), China (14.9%), and Mexico (13.5%). As is evident in the chart, since 2008 US exports to Brazil far exceed its imports. Given Brazil’s weak economy, the contraction in exports in 2014 could persist this year. Continue reading →

Climate Disruption: Thought of the Week

25 Wednesday Mar 2015

Posted by Rosaliene Bacchus in Anthropogenic Climate Disruption

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council), Climate Change, Climate disruption, Nature & Environment, US Senator Sheldon Whitehouse

Time to Wake Up: What Big Oil Companies Say Vs. What They Do

Pushing Back against ALEC
(American Legislative Exchange Council)

“ALEC is an organization, which works to undercut climate science and undermine climate progress at the state level, interfering in our state legislatures. ALEC has tried to roll back state renewable fuel standards and has handed out model state legislation to obstruct and tie up the President’s Clean Power Plan.”

~ US Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse from Rhode Island, Speech delivered on the Senate Floor, March 12, 2015

What I learned about politicians and government growing up in Guyana

22 Sunday Mar 2015

Posted by Rosaliene Bacchus in Guyana

≈ 23 Comments

Tags

Courtney Crum-Ewing, Guyana Elections 2015, Guyana Politics

Assassination of Courtney Crum-Ewing - Guyana - March 2015

Assassination of Courtney Crum-Ewing – Guyana – March 10, 2015
Photo Credit: Kaieteur News

On March 10, 2015, Courtney Crum-Ewing was gunned down during his one-man crusade in his neighborhood, calling on residents with a bullhorn to vote out the current government in the upcoming May elections.

Growing up in Guyana during our struggle for independence from Britain and over subsequent years under an authoritarian government, I was not surprised by this brutal act against an unarmed, political activist. One of the advantages of growing up in the administrative capital of a small developing nation was the opportunity to get a close up view of politicians and government in action.

At a young age, I learned that the government was not some entity separate from we-the-people, but rather an integral and vital part of our daily lives. When a government is efficient and effective in executing its diverse functions, no one notices its existence. Not so in a small struggling young nation where bad roads took lives; where a movie at the cinema was cut short due to an unexpected blackout; where yards and streets flood during heavy rainfall; where tap water was red in color but declared safe to drink; where the importation of wheat flour was banned for lack of foreign currency… I could go on and on.

I learned that good governance depends upon politicians who place the needs of the people and nation before their personal gains. Corrupt politicians—those who receive kickbacks from local and foreign contractors and consultants, as well as pocket a percentage of foreign investment loans for their personal enrichment—bankrupt the nation, disrupt law and order, and foment moral decline.

I learned that political power in the hands of unscrupulous and narcissistic individuals lead to abuse of power and impunity. Such individuals have no qualms in silencing and executing those who threaten their authority.

I learned that control of the media, public and private, prevents the dissemination of information of vital importance to the population: poor governance, corrupt politicians, failures within the system, and abuses of power.

I learned that when politicians of opposition parties cannot work together in the interest of the nation, the entire system falls apart. With the collapse of law and order, the country becomes the playground of the world’s underworld and exploitative corporations.

I learned that when there is free and fair elections—without intimidation and with foreign oversight—our vote counts. When we fail to cast our vote, we empower those voters who have a personal stake in the current system of influence, abuse, and impunity.

Courtney Crum-Ewing was prepared to go it alone in protesting the abuse of political power and to wake up the population from their apathy. Honor his sacrifice by going out to vote on May 11, 2015. His life mattered. Your life matters. The lives of your children matter.

Climate Disruption: Thought of the Week

18 Wednesday Mar 2015

Posted by Rosaliene Bacchus in Anthropogenic Climate Disruption

≈ 12 Comments

Tags

2015 Environmental Research Letters by Jennifer A Francis & Stephen J Vavrus, Arctic warming, Climate Change, Climate Change & the Jet Stream, Climate disruption, Nature & Environment

Climate Change and the Jet Stream - Climate Central

Climate Change and the Jet Stream
Image Credit: Climate Central

Evidence for a wavier jet stream in response to rapid Arctic warming

Studies of new metrics of rapid Arctic warming and more frequent high-amplitude (wavy) jet-stream configurations “suggest that as the Arctic continues to warm faster than elsewhere in response to rising greenhouse-gas concentrations, the frequency of extreme weather events caused by persistent jet-stream patterns will increase.”

~ Environmental Research Letters, Jennifer A Francis & Stephen J Vavrus, published by IOP Publishing Ltd, January 2015. [Open Access to study available on IOP Science.]

A Blueprint for Ending War: An Alternative Global Security System

15 Sunday Mar 2015

Posted by Rosaliene Bacchus in Human Behavior, United States

≈ 12 Comments

Tags

A Blueprint for Ending War, An Alternative Global Security System, Caribbean Region, Ending War, Spring Rising: An Anti-War Intervention in Washington DC March 2015, Threat to U.S. National Security, War Machine, World Beyond War

World Beyond War Video

The warmongers among us who benefit from endless war would like us to believe that the human species is wired for warfare, that violence is the only effective response to aggression from our enemies. If that were true, we would not have survived as a species.

Warfare has served only to dominate weaker peoples or states for territorial expansion, control of resources, and a cheap subservient labor force. In modern times, war serves to secure the world’s oil resources held by so-called enemy states. In a not-too-distant future, fresh water and food production zones will replace our relentless pursuit for liquid black gold. Continue reading →

Climate Disruption: Thought of the Week

11 Wednesday Mar 2015

Posted by Rosaliene Bacchus in Anthropogenic Climate Disruption

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Climate Change, Climate disruption, Effects of Ocean Acidification on Marine Life, Nature & Environment, Ocean Acidification, Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PIMEL), U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

Effects of Ocean Acidification on Marine LifeEffects of Ocean Acidification on Marine Life
Image Credit: John MacNeill for Climate Central (2010)

Ocean Acidification: The Other Carbon Dioxide Problem

The ocean absorbs about a quarter of the CO2 we release into the atmosphere every year, so as atmospheric CO2 levels increase, so do the levels in the ocean… [D]ecades of ocean observations now show that…the CO2 absorbed by the ocean is changing the chemistry of the seawater, a process called OCEAN ACIDIFICATION.

~ PIMEL Carbon Group, U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

Brazil – Preparing My Sons for Our Move to the USA

08 Sunday Mar 2015

Posted by Rosaliene Bacchus in Brazil, Education

≈ 14 Comments

Tags

Books for adolescent boys, Fortaleza/Ceará, Migrating to the United States, Popular English Classics for adolescent boys, Reading out loud, Speaking in English as a Second Language (ESL)

The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe - Book CoverThe Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe – Book Cover

 

After mailing my divorce papers to my mother in the United States, five years went by before I heard from her attorney that the application for permanent residence for me and my two sons were finally being processed. On the chance that our application might be approved, I began preparing my sons, then sixteen and eighteen years old, for life in an English-speaking country.

Ten years earlier, after their father left Brazil to return to Guyana, my sons had stopped speaking English. To ensure that they did not forget the English language, I continued to speak to them in English. Later, when they started high school, it helped that English was part of their school’s curriculum. They both excelled in English grammar and vocabulary.

To get them to practice speaking in English without making it an onerous activity, I set up one-hour reading sessions once or twice a week, depending upon my work schedule. They had to be engaging stories for adolescent boys their age. In Fortaleza, finding the popular English Classics, in the English language, proved to be a challenge. But I did manage to find some of my favorites:

  • Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne
  • Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
  • The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
  • The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
  • The Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
  • The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
  • The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
  • Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

During our reading sessions, we took turns at reading out loud. Their reading proficiency in English surprised me. Whenever we came upon a word or expression that they did not understand, I translated it to Portuguese. To determine their level of comprehension, I ended each session with a brief discussion. While I did not get them to comment on the story in English, I was satisfied that they were hearing themselves speak the language. From my own struggles in learning to speak Portuguese, I knew what an important step this was for them.

Happily, they enjoyed the stories and looked forward to our reading sessions. While preparing this blog post, I asked them which story was their favorite.

Without hesitation, my younger son said, “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.”

His older brother couldn’t decide. “I enjoyed them all,” he said.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was the last book we began reading together. By then, there were so many other pressing matters to attend to regarding our immigration process that we never completed the book. As in real life, we did not know what lay ahead for us, beyond the wardrobe, in our future adopted homeland.

Climate Disruption: Thought of the Week

04 Wednesday Mar 2015

Posted by Rosaliene Bacchus in Anthropogenic Climate Disruption

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Climate Change, Climate disruption, Earth’s Atmospheric CO2, Mauna Loa Observatory, Nature & Environment

Atmospheric CO2 - January 1959 to January 2015 - Mauna Loa ObservatoryAtmospheric CO2: January 1959 to January 2015
Mauna Loa Observatory – Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Source: CO2Now

 

Keeping Track of the Earth’s Atmospheric CO2

“If humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed and to which life on Earth is adapted, paleoclimate evidence and ongoing climate change suggest that CO2 will need to be reduced … to at most 350 ppm.”
~ Dr. James Hansen, former NASA Climatologist

“Pantoum for Ferguson: 20 Miles a Day” Poem by Angela Consolo Mankiewicz

01 Sunday Mar 2015

Posted by Rosaliene Bacchus in Poetry

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

Against police tyranny, American poet Angela Consolo Mankiewicz, Black lives matter, Ferguson/Missouri, Pantoum poetic form, Racism poem, Selma/Alabama, We can’t breathe

We Can't BreatheWe Can’t Breathe – Against Police Tyranny
Source: IFWEA

 

To mark the fiftieth anniversary of “Bloody Sunday” in Selma, Alabama, on March 7, 1965, my Poetry Corner March 2015 features the poem “Pantoum for Ferguson: 20 Miles a Day” by American poet Angela Consolo Mankiewicz.

The modern pantoum is composed of four-line stanzas in which the second and fourth lines of each stanza serve as the first and the third lines of the next stanza. As you’ll notice in Mankiewicz’ pantoum, the repeated lines take on a slightly different meaning and punctuation.

The pantoum’s pattern of rhyme and repetition is the perfect poetic form for giving us the sense of the four-step forward and two-step backward movement of race relations in America. Continue reading →

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