Blondes, brunettes, mulattos …. Ahh, Muses, What's Carnival Without Them?

São Paulo as the industrial and economic centre of Brazil starts its carnival parades on Friday night with the highlight on Saturday night. Then it is over in São Paulo, the Paulista can not spend valuable working hours with something as frivolous as carnival. Monday is simply back to work.
Rio de Janeiro is different. Cariocas are partying all the time and working a bit in between. Rio is the glamour city, São Paulo is for serious business.
Although in Rio carnival in the streets starts on Friday, the big carnival parades in de Sambódromo are Saturday night with the top on Monday night. The Carioca is slowly cutting-back on his festivities on Tuesday to enable him to quietly sleep on Wednesday, as officially his working day starts at noon. But don’t contact a company in Rio before Thursday morning, better still wait till next Monday.

Anyway, let’s start with:


The Muses of 1st day of carnival parades in São Paulo:

For a full reportage with all the pictures of the carnival queens and beauties visit: “Blondes, brunettes, mulattos …. Ahh, Muses, without them carnival would not be fun” at Anton Steeman Homepage

Lula, the great world leader

This is a translation of a post written by my fellow blogger: Wanderley Filho

One of Lula's ambitions is to be recognized as a major world leader, a leader with a recognition which equals Nelson Mandela, for example. This wish seems to be promoted constantly by his assistants. In the midst of this illusion of greatness, some nonsense takes form as ridiculous proposals and end up as a mockery of Brazil.

Lula has already proposed the “World Zero Hunger" program, which should be financed by taxes levied on international arms trade; he said also that he would re-establish the geopolitics (he loves that word) of this planet with bio-diesel; that the countries of the G-20, led by Brazil, will dethrone the countries of the G-8 at the moment of creating of a new global economy and that the victories of the leftist parties in Latin America, starting with his own, had paved the way for the election of Barack Obama in the USA. At the height of arrogance towards its destiny as a world leader, Lula revealed that even God, in transit in Brazil, had decided to remain there to help him.

With the same modesty, Lula pretends, which many diplomatic delegation of the world already had done, to resolve the discord, which is the base of the current conflict in the Gaza Strip between Islamic terrorists and Israel. The extract below was published on the website of Folha Online:

"I sent Celso Amorim [Minister of Foreign Affairs] to the Middle East in order to tell them that Brazil is interested in active participation, so that finally a path to peace can be established in that area, in that geographic area of the world. (...) The existence of two states is quite possible, that there will be diplomatic relations, that there can be development, that there is improvement and I think that the Palestinian people deserve this opportunity."

Wow! Things are so simple that no one realized how easy it is to solve that first seemed insoluble. Brazil is not even able to maintain order in its favela regions of Rio de Janeiro, dominated by drug traffickers who forced the legal government out of the region. Every year, there are 50 thousand Brazilians murdered, a number much larger than that of the war in Iraq, for example. But Lula knows how peace in the Middle East can be achieved. This borders on the ridiculous. Or rather, it's ridiculous.

[With a paraphrase of one of Lula's famous sayings:]
Never before on this planet a "world leader" was as insignificant.

Source: Lula, o grande lider mundial
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Happy New Year

One of the most spectacular events of the year is the “Réveillon” fireworks at the Copacabana beach of Rio de Janeiro, with which Brazil enters the New Year.

This year again Rio de Janeiro gave prove why during this time of the year so many tourists prefer to spend their holiday season here.

During 20 minutes the public stood there agape with wonder by the beauty of the fireworks. A beautiful experience which, to the contrary of previous years, was not frustrated by growing smoke clouds.

Even Saint Peter was in a good mood as the heavy rains stopped by 23.00 hours.

According to the police some 2 million people enjoyed the spectacle.

The big surprise this year were the 'bombas filhotes', which multiply in the air.

Twenty-four tons of fireworks were fired from 8 pontoons.

The company New Fireworks realised the fireworks against a cost of R$ 1,6 million (ca. USD 600.000).

Early on the tourists as well as the cariocas (inhabitants of Rio) went to the Copacabana beach to enjoy a last dive in the ocean and secure a good place from which they could watch the fireworks. The pontoons, from which the fireworks should be launched, anchored during the afternoon in front of the beach.

Click here for a full photo reportage

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